A-Shell Reference

Value

Description

&

(ampersand) Enable protected fields.

|&

(bar ampersand) Works like a "smart" version of &, re-enabling protected mode on exit only if it was previously enabled. The & feature always re-enables protected mode, which was the way it worked historically under AMOS. Beginning with A-Shell 6.3.1540: when specified in the INFDEF string, now affects BASIC INPUT fields. (Normally, the INFDEF options only apply to XCALL INPUT, XCALL INFLD, etc.) This can be handy in an application that uses protected fields along with BASIC INPUT, assuming that the BASIC INPUT does not deactivate the protection (which INFLD would otherwise do).

(

(open parenthesis) Strip leading blanks from entry before pre-load.

)

(close parenthesis) Start cursor at end.

|/

(bar slash) Disables the display of the INFLD "about" box, which is normally triggered by Ctrl+Slash. This is mainly a workaround for a problem where the about box is being triggered unexpectedly.

||`

(vertical bar, vertical bar, grave) Forces unconditional destructive CR; text mode only.

:

(colon) Disable bright and dim.

;

(semicolon) Turn cursor on while waiting for input; turn it off again on exit from field.

[

(open bracket) Force cursor to blink during input.

\

(backslash) Clear bottom line.

]

(close bracket) Strip trailing blanks. Otherwise entry field is filled up with trailing blanks, like in the original AlphaAccounting version of INPUT. The stripped blanks are not counted toward xmin. (See ].)

|]

(bar close bracket) Defeats both the padding and stripping of trailing blanks, so that you get back exactly what you typed. (See ].)

^

(carat) Convert to upper case (1).

_

(underscore) Use clear-to-end-of-line function (-1,9) to clear field.

|_

(bar underscore) Use underline to mark designated field (instead of default auto-beveling). See Field Markers.

`

(grave accent) Force destructive Enter.

|.

(bar period) Forces INFLD to use periods rather than underlines for the field marker in text mode. Previously you had to use prehistoric compatibility mode, or allow decimal points, to achieve this.

}

(close brace) Activates "INMEMO" mode. This is a special INFLD mode used internally by the A-Shell implementation of INMEMO.

|}

(bar close brace) Activates horizontal scrolling mode. Set automatically when maxchrs > xmax.

||}

(bar bar close brace) Activates "command-line" mode. This is a special INFLD mode used internally by the A-Shell implementation of the dot prompt and for BASIC INPUT statements.

<

(less than) Echo a carriage return on exit from the field. This is useful especially with the F and @ codes to let the operator know immediately that the input is being processed.

=

(equals) Do not reformat the field on exit. Also see |R, do not redisplay on exit.

|A

Activates simulation of Xcall AMBTOA.

b

Disallow blanks.

B

Disable character blanking.

c

Capitalize first letter of each word.

e

Force non-destructive Return (or Enter). This is the default for most field types except numeric. See code  `  (grave accent) above.

E

Abort allowed.

f

Form Field.

F

Fast input.

|F

|F is similar to F (fast) except that it affects the preload operation, rather than interactive typing. When specified, if the preloaded characters satisfy the minimum field size, then the field will exit immediately (without waiting for input).

||F

Forces the current field to use the fixed pitch font, regardless of the setting of the "Use Fixed Pitch In Edit Boxes" option in the Misc. Settings menu. This can be useful when specific fields do not work well in a proportional font.

g

Return updated field contents.

h

Disables the help message display "Hit ? for Help". This may be desirable when you have help on virtually every field, or when you need to use that area for some other message.

i

(lower case I) Completely invisible field. Similar to S except that nothing is echoed (so you cannot even see how many characters are allowed, or how many were typed.) type  i  silences the beveling so that the field remains totally invisible—i.e. no cursor, no indication of field position or size, no echoing of characters.

I

(upper case letter "eye".) Use invisible field markers. See also Field Markers.

|I

(bar upper case letter "eye") Forces INFLD to start in insert mode, rather than the default, which may be either insert or replace mode, depending on several factors.

||I

(bar bar upper case letter "eye") Forces INSERT mode off / REPLACE mode on). This overrides the remembered state for the current field, but does not change the remembered state for subsequent fields.

||k

Disables internal too-fast input filter, which may otherwise cause characters fed via a burst to be dropped.

|l

(bar lower case letter "el") Forces lower case.

||l

(bar bar lower case letter "el") Same as ||L except that entry will return a complete <code>,<description> pair (e.g. "01,North") instead of just the code item. See Coded Lists.

||L

(bar bar upper case letter "el") List substitution. setdef consists of <code>,<descr> pairs, e.g.: ,01,North,02,South,03,Middle Earth,, Application uses the code items (01, 02, ...) while the operator sees and uses the description items. See Coded Lists.

m

Disable the INFLD.DEF option.

n

Return null.

O

(Upper case letter "O") Optional field. Allows operator to skip the field, even if the xmin specified is non-zero. However, if 1 or more characters are entered, then the minimum goes back into effect.

p

Overrides cmdflg parameter, setting it to 1—i.e. forces command file input to be active. See also MX_SETCMDINP.

|p

Prehistoric Compatibility Mode. See Field Markers.

||p

Disables the use of the clipboard paste option.

|P*

This three-character type combination (vertical bar, P, followed by any character A-Z, [, ], ^, _) enables Ctrl+ (whatever the third character of the sequence is) to launch the pop-up utility ASHPOP.RUN.

||P

This may be used with the security type field S to automatically decrypt/encrypt a password, using A-Shell's standard password encryption scheme. See MX_PWCRYPT. ||P supports MX_PWCRYPT modes 1 and 2.

q

Causes field to be edited in reverse video.

|r

Read only.

|R

Do not redisplay field.

s

Disable display of setdef options, which are otherwise displayed along the bottom line of the screen. Not applicable in GUI mode, where the setdef options are loaded into a combo box.

S

Security field: echo all characters as "*". Also see  i  above.

|s

Provides support for regular expressions in SETDEF. When |s is specified, SETDEF is interpreted as a single regular expression, which the data field must match. Note that to invoke regular expression flags such as PCRE_CASELESS, you will need to use the Perl-style internal option settings, e.g. "(?i)[AP]M" will match AM, PM, am, pm, etc. Also note that in this mode, setdef should contain only the regex pattern, with no leading or trailing delimiters.

|S

Causes an automatic screen capture to be appended to the capture file on exit from the field. See MX_SCRNPIC for more info on screen captures.

|u

Convert to upper case (2).

W

Disallow record abort key.

|X*

Program Ctrl+X.

0

(zero) Strip away all characters typed ahead into the input buffer before inputting the field. Useful when you want to make sure that the operator reads a message or prompt before answering it.