Activating a control

Controls are activated by the ACCEPT Statement. The syntax is:

ACCEPT {screen-name-1 } ... {handle-1 } {CONTROL AT location}

location is defined as follows:

{ screen-loc [CELL ] [CELLS ] [PIXEL ] [PIXELS]     LINE NUMBER line-num [CELL ] [CELLS ] [PIXEL ] [PIXELS]   {COLUMN } NUMBER col-num [CELL ] {COL } [CELLS ] {POSITION} [PIXEL ] {POS } [PIXELS] }

When a whole Screen Section is activated, only one control is activated at a time and the other controls are automatically activated in response to the user's actions. By default, the [Tab] and [Enter] keys activate the next control, while the [Shift+Tab] key activates the previous one. The keyboard is fully configurable, so any key can be used to change the active control. Controls are also activated by the mouse click. The program can prevent a control from being activated. See the Embedded Procedures and the Event handling sections for further details.

When a single control is activated, no automatic activation occurs. The CMD-GOTO Event is fired instead, and all the information needed to activate the new control is provided.

The user can also use the function keys to access the various functions of the program. The easiest way to do that, is to include the ACCEPT Statement in a loop.

77  Key-Pressed IS SPECIAL-NAMES CRT STATUS PIC 9(5). 78  KeyEsc VALUE 27. 78  KeyF6  VALUE 6.   . . .   PERFORM UNTIL Key-Pressed = KeyEsc      ACCEPT MyScreen      EVALUATE Key-Pressed    WHEN KeyF6         PERFORM A-FUNCTION    END-EVALUATE   END-PERFORM

Key-Pressed is defined as the special register CRT STATUS containing the value associated with the function key that terminated the ACCEPT Statement.

Push-Buttons, Check-Boxes and Radio-Buttons with the SELF-ACT Style set do not need to be explicitly activated. In this way, a control not belonging to the Screen Section currently active can be handled with little programming effort.