Pathway/iTS SCREEN COBOL Reference Manual (G06.24+, H06.03+, Pathway/iTS 1.0+)

Procedure Division
Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/iTS SCREEN COBOL Reference Manual—426750-001
6-84
SEND MESSAGE Statement
the message, is converted and edited according to the message definition, and is
then sent to the intelligent device.
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If send-message identifies an 01 level data item in Working-Storage, the
data is neither validated nor converted but is sent as is to the device, unless the
USER CONVERSION clause is included.
°
If send-message identifies a variable-length data item (described with an
OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause), it sends only the number of characters up
to and including the current number of occurrences.
•
reply-message considerations:
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If reply-message is the name of a message template, the value of the
message is validated according to the message-field definition, converted to the
format of the Working-Storage data item in the TO or USING clause, and then
moved to that data item.
°
If reply-message is the name of a level 01 Working-Storage item, the data
from the intelligent device is neither validated nor converted but is moved as is
to the data item, unless you specify a USER CONVERSION clause.
°
All the reply-messages in any one SEND MESSAGE statement must have
the same format: FIXED, VARYING1, VARYING2, DELIMITED, or FIXED-
DELIMITED.
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If there is only one reply-message, you need not specify a reply-code.
°
When the TCP receives a reply from the intelligent device, it checks for a
reply-code in the message or data item. The reply-code value indicates
which reply-message was returned.
°
The reply-code is located either at the location indicated by code-field
or, if code-field is omitted, in the first two bytes of the message or data
item.
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Each reply-code is associated with a value in the special register
TERMINATION-STATUS. TERMINATION-STATUS is set to a number
corresponding to the position of each reply-code in the list of reply-
code values, starting at position number 1.
°
A reply-message can be associated with more than one reply-code.
Each reply-code corresponds to a unique setting for TERMINATION-
STATUS regardless of whether the reply-code yields the same or a different
reply-message.
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If a code-field is specified, a reply-message is selected by comparing
each reply-code with the code-field according to the standard SCREEN
COBOL rules for equality (refer to Section 2, SCREEN COBOL Source
Program). The test is performed exactly as if it were written:
IF code-field EQUALS reply-code