A-Shell Consolidated Reference

Value

Description

!

(exclamation point) Activate return of elapsed time during input. This is only applicable when the timer parameter is specified. Note that this can be used even if time-out is not specified (by setting timer=0).

/

(slash) Disable the timer-related messages that normally appear on the bottom line, such as "timing out", except for the time remaining clock. Combine with + to eliminate all of the timer displays.

+

(plus sign) Disable display of time remaining (on bottom line). Normally, the time remaining until time-out is displayed (and updated every second) on the bottom right corner of the screen.

Q

Disable time-out suspend feature. (Normally, the operator can suspend the time-out counter for 10 minutes by hitting Ctrl+S. Suspending the timer is useful when you have to temporarily interrupt data entry, as when answering the phone.) Note: Under A-Shell, Ctrl+B is the suspend key.

r

Time out reminder. This is similar in motivation to the w code, except that it just causes a single beep, without any message, after 10 seconds have elapsed (when the timer option is active.)

|t

Reset timer to the initial value after every keystroke.

|T

Overrides timer parameter to zero. Useful for disabling timer globally in programs that otherwise use it (by putting this in the SBR=INFDEF: string.)

w

Timer wake up warning. When added to any set of timer related codes, causes a warning beep and message when only 10 seconds remain on the timer. The message blinks TIMING OUT in the lower right corner of the screen, and any key hit during the remaining 10 seconds resets the timer to the original value. Note that w overrides / to display the warning message and suspend message as well, if invoked.

||1

Modifies the timeout feature causing it to start out suspended. The first character typed reactivates the timer. Note that all other timer-related options and type codes remain in effect, and that the initial timer suspension, as with the normal manual timeout suspension, is for 10 minutes.

type code ||1 processes the timer on each character received, as well as after one second of no characters, allowing it to time out even in the middle of steady—faster than one  character per second—typing.

Normally, the timer logic is only processed at the end of each second without input. That makes sense from standpoint of minimizing CPU overhead in idle fields, as well as user-friendliness—since timing out while the user is actively typing isn't very friendly. But ||1 is a special case, intended to accept only burst-style input, such as might be received from a scanner.

Note that it is left to the application to weed out partial inputs deemed invalid after the timeout. Exitcode will be set to 11 to indicate timeout. And also note that you probably want to disable most of the timer-related messaging (see type codes / and +), but not Q, since ||1 starts by suspending the timeout until the first character received.