Enter refers to the carriage
return or Enter key. Where commands to be typed are shown, the Enter key is not
explicitly shown; it is treated as implicit that Enter must be pressed at the
end of the line.
Hexadecimal numbers are enclosed in quotation marks and
preceded by a lower-case "x" or "h"; for example, x"9D", h"03FF". The "x" is
used when the hexadecimal number represents a character string; the "h" when it
represents a numerical value.
PIC X is used rather than PIC 99 with the COMP-X and
COMP-5 data types. Unlike PIC 99, PIC X shows the length of the data item and
so demonstrates more clearly the use of COMP-X, which is to define a binary
item of the specified number of bytes.
Keytops and menu choices are emboldened within the text.
In some environments, you might notice that what appears
on your screen differs in minor ways (for example, version numbers) from that
illustrated in this book. This will not affect the operation of your software.
The keys described in this book are not available in all
environments. When there is a reference to use of a key such as a status or
function key, this refers to the logical press and release of this key, rather
than physical keystroke. If your environment does not support the key given,
please refer to your accompanying Read Me for the
equivalent key.
The term "window" refers to a delineated area on the
screen, normally smaller than the full screen. The term "Windows" refers to
Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later.
On-line help is not described in the documentation.
Select Help from the menu or press the
Help button on a dialog box to see context
sensitive help information.
The notation used to describe the format of command lines is
as follows:
Words printed in italics are generic terms representing
names to be devised by you.
Material enclosed in square brackets [ ] is optional.
When material is enclosed in braces { }, you must choose
from the options within them. If there is only one option in the braces, the
braces indicate repetition.
The ellipsis (. . .) follows { } or [ ] and means you can
repeat the material in the { } or [ ]. The number of repetitions allowed is
unlimited unless otherwise stated. If the ellipsis is used with [ ] the
material can be omitted altogether.
If a command line does not fit across the page, it is
continued on the next line; the continuation line is indented.
Command line options can be specified as /option or
-option.