This document provides some additional information on input/output devices supported by Natural.
This section covers the following topics:
Natural supports a wide variety of terminal types for the use with
mainframe computers. In TP monitor environments in which the terminal type
information is not supplied automatically to Natural, you can use the Natural
profile parameter TTYPE so that
Natural can activate the appropriate converter routine to operate a specific
type of terminal.
Links to related topics:
Terminal Communication - Profile Parameters Grouped by Function (Parameter Reference documentation)
NATCONFG Module (various I/O translation topics)
The support of light pens has been enhanced by the terminal command
%RM.
This command causes all light-pen-sensitive fields on the screen to be made
write-protected; that is, the user can select them with a light pen, but cannot
overwrite their contents.
For a field to be light-pen sensitive, it must be displayed intensified
(session parameter AD=I) or blinking
(AD=B), and the first character of the field must be a light-pen
designator character (see below). Selecting a field with a light pen causes the
designator character to be changed; therefore, you can make the processing of
fields selected with a light pen dependent on the values of the designator
characters.
The following designator characters are available:
| Character | Meaning |
|---|---|
?
|
You can select multiple fields before pressing ENTER. |
> |
It was selected and if it is selected again, it becomes a
question mark ?; the characters ? and
> will toggle.
|
&
|
You can select only one field and it will be as an ENTER for both the field and the MDT (modified data tag). |
' ' (blank)
|
You can select only one field and you will only see the MDT. |
As designator characters, you have to distinguish selection fields
(?, >) and attention fields (&,
blank or null). Selection fields do not start an immediate data transmission,
so you are able to select more than one field. Attention fields result in an
immediate action.
The SELECT CURSOR key emulates a light-pen selection. If you move the cursor to the field you want to select and press SELECT CURSOR, this field will be selected.
RESET #FIELD-1 (A8)
#FIELD-2 (A8) #FIELD-3 (A8) #CV-1 (C) #CV-2 (C) #CV-3 (C)
SET KEY ALL
/* SET CONTROL 'RM' IS A TOGGLE. AFTER IT IS EXECUTED ONCE MAKE IT A
/* COMMENT, SO THAT YOU DO NOT TOGGLE IT 'OFF'.
**SET CONTROL 'RM'
REPEAT
IF *PF-KEY NOT = 'ENTR' AND *PF-KEY NOT = 'PEN' ESCAPE BOTTOM
MOVE (AD=I CD=YE) TO #CV-1
MOVE (AD=I CD=RE) TO #CV-2
MOVE (AD=I CD=BL) TO #CV-3
MOVE ' FIELD-1' TO #FIELD-1
MOVE '&FIELD-2' TO #FIELD-2
MOVE '?FIELD-3' TO #FIELD-3
INPUT (SG=OFF IP=OFF)
01/01 #FIELD-1 (CV=#CV-1 AD=M)
03/01 #FIELD-2 (CV=#CV-2 AD=M)
05/01 #FIELD-3 (CV=#CV-3 AD=M)
WRITE 'PF-KEY =' *PF-KEY
IF #CV-1 MODIFIED WRITE '#CV-1 MODIFIED' #FIELD-1
IF #CV-2 MODIFIED WRITE '#CV-2 MODIFIED' #FIELD-2
IF #CV-3 MODIFIED WRITE '#CV-3 MODIFIED' #FIELD-3
LOOP
END
The following topics are covered:
Printer-advance control characters can be generated within a Natural
program by using the DEFINE
PRINTER statement as follows:
.... DEFINE PRINTER (n) OUTPUT 'name' DEFINE PRINTER (n+1) OUTPUT 'CCONTROL' ....
Both DEFINE PRINTER statements work together so that all
Natural output for the printer (n)
follows the normal Natural report-output rules and all Natural output for the
printer (n+1) is also written to the
printer (n). Natural does not generate
a printer-advance control character for this report. Therefore, the first
character in the output variable is the control character.
With this method, it is possible to merge control characters for laser-printer systems and channel-advance characters for line printers in a normal Natural output report.
- Sample Natural Program for Printer-Advance Control Character
The corresponding hexadecimal data in the spool file starting from column 0 are:
I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I F1 E3 C5 E2 E3 1 T E S T 4E E3 C5 E2 E3 + T E S T 5A ....
CCONTROLis the name of a special printer control table associated to the printern-1; it must not be modified.
Natural supports IBM 3800 laser-printer systems.
The DEFINE
PRINTER statement is used to control and allocate a report
for the 3800 printer system. With this statement, you can specify that the
Natural print output for report 1 is routed to a 3800 printer system.
DEFINE PRINTER (1) OUTPUT 'LAS3800' I I => 1-31 for CMPRT01 to CMPRT31 ....
Depending on the setting of the INTENS parameter,
Natural repeats each line up to four times and recognizes the Natural
attributes AD=D, AD=I, AD=C and
AD=V (see session parameter AD).
The first line contains the ASA control code in the first column and
the 3800-font control character (hexadecimal F0) for the first
font in the second column. The columns 2 to
nnn contain the print data which are
not flagged with the attribute AD=I, AD=C or
AD=V.
The second line contains the ASA control code + (for
printing without line advance) in the first column and the 3800-font control
character (hexadecimal F1) for the second font in the second
column. The columns 2 to nnn contain
the print data which are flagged with AD=I.
The third line contains the ASA control code + (for
printing without line advance) in the first column and the 3800-font control
character (hexadecimal F2) for the third font in the second column. The columns
2 to nnn contain the print data which are flagged
with AD=C.
The fourth line contains the ASA control code + (for
printing without line advance) in the first column and the 3800-font control
character (hexadecimal F3) for the fourth font in the second
column. The columns 2 to nnn contain the print data
which are flagged with AD=V.
If INTENS is specified with a value less than 4, all
non-supported fonts are printed with hexadecimal F0.
- Sample Natural Program for Laser Printer Usage
The corresponding hexadecimal data in the spool file starting from column 0 are:
I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I..I 40 F0 C6 C9 D9 E2 E3 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 (hex) 0 F I R S T 4E F1 40 40 40 40 40 40 E2 C5 C3 E4 D5 C4 C4 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 (hex) + 1 S E C O N D 4E F2 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 E3 C8 C9 D9 D4 40 40 (hex) + 2 T H I R D 4E F3 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 C5 (hex) + 3 F- Sample JCL for Laser Printer Usage
.... //xxxx JOB xxxxx,.... . //xxxxx EXEC PGM= XXXXXX;...... . // PARM='INTENS=4,XXXX,....... . . //OUT1 OUTPUT PAGEDEF=XXXX,FORMDEF=XXXX,TRC=ON . I I . I I => 3800 form definition . I . I => 3800 page definition . //CMPRT01 DD SYSOUT=Y // DCB=(RECFM=FBA,LRECL=133),OUTPUT=*,OUT1 // CHARS=(WWWW,XXXX,YYYY, ZZZZ) I I => IBM font names ...