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

Defining Field Characters in a Panel Description File
Working With Panels
14–34 106160 Tandem Computers Incorporated
4. Observe the results, as shown in the following screen:
15:22:59------------------- Obtaining Name and Age -------------TUE 26-MAY-1992
Type name : John Smith
Type age : 2001 (You can lie if you like)
Check name: John Smith
Check age : 2001
F3=Exit F4=Return
The panel has two input fields. The first input field follows the Type name output
field. The second input field follows the Type age output field. Each time you type a
new value in an input field, it is passed to the NCL process controlling panel display,
and the panel is redisplayed with the value shown in the corresponding output field.
The preceding screen shows the result after both a name and age have been entered at
the keyboard. Notice that the variables positioned to accept input—NAME and
AGE—do not have initial ampersands and that the variables positioned to display
output—&NAME and &AGE—do have initial ampersands.
Using the #ALIAS Panel Control Statement
Sometimes it is necessary to save space in a panel by abbreviating the names of fields
that are very long; the longer, more descriptive, names can be retained in the NCL
procedure that displays the panel. You can use the #ALIAS panel control statement to
abbreviate long names for input and outvar fields.
To observe the effect of using the #ALIAS panel control statement, follow these steps: