Select data entry convention

Updated August 2020; see History

|K determines whether to adopt Windows or AMOS conventions related to data entry, when the two are in conflict. For example, without |K, the initial input mode is overwrite; with |K it is insert. (You can use the Insert key to toggle insert mode on and off.) Without |K, the Home key is considered a field exit key (returning exitcode 9 if type 9 is specified); with |K, Home just moves the cursor to the start of the field. With |K, Tab acts like Enter (returns exitcode 0).

In most cases where the nature of the GUI version of the control introduces the possibility of navigating within the control using keys that might otherwise have been only used as exit keys (such as up/down arrows within a drop-down list), you can use the Ctrl key in conjunction with the navigation key (e.g. Arrows, Home, etc.) to force it to act as an exit key, assuming the exit key is allowed by the type codes.

When |K (Windows keyboard mode) is NOT used, the Shift+Arrow keys work like function keys (same as they do in text mode), and will generate exitcodes based on the <tdv>.IFX translation table. The standard exitcodes for the shifted arrows are: -36, -37, -38 and -39. See FIXTRN.LIT for details on editing translation tables.

See also Ctrl+C Behavior.

History

2020 August, A-Shell 6.5.1688:  Windows keyboard mode refinement: when |K is specified, Ctrl+LEFT and Ctrl+RIGHT now navigate to previous and next word—equivalent to the traditional Ctrl+A and Ctrl+W.