NET/MASTER Network Control Language (NCL) Programmer's Guide

Defining Field Characters in a Panel Description File
Working With Panels
106160 Tandem Computers Incorporated 14–31
There are SYSPARMS commands available for you to change the contents of these
system variables. For example, to change the color for mandatory input fields to
YELLOW, use the command:
SYSPARMS SPINPHIC=YELLOW
This command sets the system variable &SYS.PANEL.INPHIC to YELLOW.
Refer to the NonStop NET/MASTER NCL Reference Manual for a complete description of
these system variables.
Specifying Input and
Output Field Characters
Panel description files typically contain a combination of two types of fields: input
and output fields. The #FLD panel control statement with the TYPE operand defines
the type of field.
Input Fields in a Panel Description File
A #FLD statement that specifies TYPE=INPUT or TYPE=NULL defines a field
character for an input field.
A field defined as an input field in a panel description file can accept data from a user
when the panel is displayed. For this reason, input fields are called unprotected fields
(because data in the field is not protected from change).
When displayed on a screen, you can enter data in an input field. Panel Services
inserts the data you enter into the variable positioned in the panel description file to
accept the data.
There are two types of input fields. The first type of input field allows the input data
to be made available to an NCL process for processing. This is the most common type
of input field. A #FLD statement that specifies TYPE=INPUT defines a field character
for this type of input field.
The second type of input field allows the input data to be ignored and not displayed.
The main use for this type of input field is to allow a user to invoke a cursor-sensitive
function by positioning the cursor at a specific location on the screen and pressing a
function key: for example, cursor-sensitive help. A #FLD statement that specifies
TYPE=NULL defines a field character for this type of input field.
Note Each variable that accepts input in the panel must omit the initial ampersand (&). This allows you to
define input fields that accept a single character. However, if an NCL procedure refers to an input
variable, it must include the ampersand in the variable reference.
Output Fields in a Panel Description File
A #FLD statement that specifies TYPE=OUTPUT defines a field character for an
output field.
Output fields display data that Panel Services protects from alteration by a user. For
this reason, output fields are called protected fields. Once displayed, the data can
only be changed by Panel Services and NCL. The data may be fixed data, data from a
variable, or a combination of fixed data and variable data.