PFkeys PFkeys Author: David McRitchie formatted on 1995/04/01 06:54 for assistance contact: D. McRitchie DMcRitchie@hotmail.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Setting PF keys Even though you could customize all 24 PF keys, you should keep the 12 most ac- cessible keys at their standard defaults; otherwise, you will have difficulty in using many software products. If your keyboard shows only 12 keys, use of the shift key will generally allow use of PF 13-24. Option 0.1 must show 24 keys. How to reprogram PF keys Option 0 from the ISPF MASTER APPLICATION MENU and then Option 3 from the ISPF PARAMETER OPTIONS screen. To reset PF keys from within an application use ===> KEYS Different applications may use their own set of PF keys, so you you should check PF keys once you are in an application you have never been in before. When you request option 0.3 for PF Keys, the PRIMARY KEYS (PF13-PF24) will be displayed. When you press ENTER, the ALTERNATE KEYS (PF1-PF12) will be dis- played. If you have never changed your PF keys, you will notice that PF1 Key has the same function as PF13 Key, PF2 Key is the same as PF14, etc. Pressing the ENTER key will flip-flop between the two screens. From either screen, enter the END command or press PF3 Key to process the changes and to terminate the function. The keyword KEYS can be used to display the PF Key assignments on any screen. Type in the word KEYS in the OPTION or COMMAND area and depress the enter key. To eliminate the PF Key display, depress the PF3 key. PF keys can be reset to their default values by pressing EOF (or ErEOF), or by blanking out the PF key. The default value will appear in CAPS. If you use lowercase for changed PF keys they will show up better. In order to see the new default value press ENTER twice to come back to the same set of PFkeys. Many of the system-wide ISPF commands have a standard default PF key assignment shown on the right. An alternative is listed in parentheses. Although you can generally change all PF key assignments, you should keep twelve keys very close to the standard assignments. The twelve unchanged keys should be the most accessible of of either PF 1-12 or PF 13-24. For more information refer to REFORMAT (on page PLIDCLS-1) in "An Introduc- tion to OBC-Mytown CLISTS" by David McRitchie. This document describes most of the user clists at this installation. DEFAULT ASSIGNMENT PROGRAM FUNCTION KEYS .----------+----------+----------. | PF1/13 | PF2/14 | PF3/15 | | HELP | SPLIT | END | | | | | |----------|----------|----------| | PF4/16 | PF5/17 | PF6/18 | | RETURN | RFIND | RCHANGE | | (:ts) | | | |----------|----------|----------| | PF7/19 | PF8/20 | PF9/21 | | UP | DOWN | SWAP | | | | | |----------|----------|----------| | PF10/22 | PF11/23 | PF12/24 | | LEFT | RIGHT | RETRIEVE | | | | (cursor) | +----------+----------+----------+. PF KEYS (normal assignments) PF Key 1 HELP - PF1 will get you into the Help panels relating to the current screen you are in. Use PF3 key to get out of Help. Values for PF keys (1-12 mainly standard, except 4 and 12) PF Key 2 SPLIT - PF2 will split your screen so that you have 2 sessions to choose from at any time. The screen will be split logically into an upper session and a lower session. The position of the cursor when you depress the PF2 key determines where the screen will be split. A line of periods will appear indicating where the two screens are separated. The PF9 key allows you to swap between the two sessions. To terminate split screen mode, depress the PF3 key until you are left with one session. PF Key 3 END - PF3 will take you back to the previous screen. If you are in EDIT, PF3 ends the edit, SAVES the data and returns to the previous screen. The SAVE portion occurs as a result of AUTOSAVE being "ON". options. PF Key 4 RETURN - (this is the standard assignment) PF4 will take you back to the ISPF/PDF PRIMARY OPTION MENU. If you are in EDIT, PF4 ends the edit, SAVES the data and returns to the ISPF/PDF PRIMARY OPTION MENU. The SAVE portion occurs as a result of AUTOSAVE being "ON". The use of RETURN is functionally obsolete and is maintained only for compatibility with older ISPF versions. PF Key 4 :ts - (recommend :ts instead of RETURN) PF4 set up for text split is probably much more useful in EDIT than RETURN. Text Split will al- low you to split a line at the cursor position. PF Key 5 RFIND - PF5 will repeat your last FIND command. The direction will be the same as your last FIND either NEXT (default) or PREV (previ- ous). If a CHANGE command was issued later, the from portion of the later CHANGE command will be used instead of the last FIND command. This enables you to use PF5 to find the NEXT/PREV occurrence of a string allowing you to examine it and if then if you want to make the change use PF6 to effect the change. PF Key 6 RCHANGE - PF6 will repeat your last CHANGE command. PF Key 7 UP - PF7 will scroll your screen backward. PF Key 8 DOWN - PF8 will scroll your screen forward. PF Key 9 SWAP - PF9 will swap between your upper or lower (SPLIT) screen. If you have not used PF2, then PF9 does nothing. PF Key 10 LEFT - PF10 will scroll your screen to the LEFT. PF Key 11 RIGHT - PF11 will scroll your screen to the RIGHT. PF Key 12 CURSOR - (recommend CURSOR instead of RETRIEVE) PF12 will move your cursor to the command area. If the cursor is already in the command area, it will be moved to the scroll option on the command line. Values for PF key 13-23 are my own, PF24 is standard. PF Key 13 PIR AT - PF13 Used with SCRIPT to create an index entry (.pi) begin- ning at the cursor location. (clist) PF Key 14 PIR - PF14 Used with SCRIPT to create an rotate the index entry such that it begins at the cursor location and the portion of the entry that was before the cursor is placed at the end the line after a separator. (clist) PF Key 15 ***** - PF15 Deactivated with beginning asterisk to discourage inad- vertent use of top row of PF keys. PF Key 16 PIR S - PF16 Used with SCRIPT to swap the first two index (.pi) lev- els to act as multiple index entries. (clist) PF Key 17 sysdsn browse - PF17 Will BROWSE the dataset or dataset(member) found at the cursor location. (clist) PF Key 18 sysdsn - PF18 Will check that the dataset or dataset(member) found at the cursor location exists. (clist) PF Key 19 sysdsn EDIT - PF19 Will EDIT the dataset or dataset(member) found at the cursor location. (clist) PF Key 20 editmem - PF20 Used with SCRIPT or other use to edit a member of the current dataset as found at the cursor location. Provision made to use column 1 of row if cursor is on a line number. Provision also made to move over 4 columns if column at cursor is ".im " which in- dicates imbedding a member or file in SCRIPT. (clist) If you use this PFkey setting at lot you may all find the @DIR LISTMEM clist useful to add membernames and directory entries to bottom of the member currently in edit. PF Key 21 sysdsn dslist - PF21 Used with SCRIPT or other use to get into DSLIST with the dataset provided as indicated at the cursor lo- cation. (clist) PF Key 22 !edchek - PF22 Used with JCL to check for incorrect JCL, missing da- tasets, inconsistencies in JCL. Also know at other installations as JCLCHECK. (edit command) PF Key 23 ****** - PF23 Frequently deactivated with asterisks. This PFKEY is frequently set to PRINT;END. PF Key 24 RETRIEVE - PF24 will retrieve you last command entry. You may use it repeatedly going back over about 18 commands previously entered. Between PFK 12 and PFK 24 it would be wise to set one of them -- the most used -- to CURSOR; and the other -- the harder to reach one -- to RETRIEVE. Scrolling up/down left/right The scroll commands and default PF key assignments are: UP (PF7/19) - to scroll towards the top of the data DOWN (PF8/20) - to scroll towards the bottom of the data LEFT (PF10/22) - to scroll towards the first column of the data RIGHT (PF11/23) - to scroll towards the last column of the data You can generally combine scrolling with other actions. By entering a command and then pressing a scroll PF key (instead of the ENTER key), both the action and the scroll are performed. This is known as command concatenation. Scrolling The SCROLL amount is specified in the upper right corner Scroll up/down/left/right to cursor SCROLL ===> CSR If the amount in the scroll amount field is invalid when a scroll command is en- tered, an error message is displayed. Either correct the scroll amount, or take an action other than scrolling. --------------- INVALID SCROLL AMOUNT After hitting the HELP key -- values allowed for SCROLL appear VALID: M (MAX), P(PAGE), H (HALF), C (CSR), D (DATA) or 1 to 9999 Scrolling through the Tutorials Tutorials are usually entered by pressing PF key 1 (HELP) from any ISPF panel. If you get the short HELP line, you may hit HELP again to get a full help screen. In addition to topics which may be selected from individual tutorial pages, you may enter one of the following in the command/option field on any tutorial page: BACK or B - to back up to the previously viewed page. SKIP or S - to skip the current topic and go on to the next topic. UP or U - to display a higher level list of topics. TOC or T - to display the table of contents. INDEX or I - to display the tutorial index. You may use the following keys whenever you are in the tutorial: ENTER - to display the next sequential page. HELP - to redisplay this page for "help" information. END - to terminate the tutorial. UP - to display a higher level list of topics (instead of typing UP ). DOWN - to skip to the next topic (instead of typing SKIP ). RIGHT - to display the next page (instead of pressing ENTER ). LEFT - To display the previous page (instead of typing BACK ). General Information Commands and PF keys ISPF commands are provided for commonly used functions. You may enter a command in the following ways: * By typing the command in the command/option field and then pressing the EN- TER key; * By selecting an attention field using a light pen or the cursor select key (this key is a hardware feature on the 3278, 3279, and 3290 terminals); * By pressing a program function (PF) key that has been equated to the desired command. Use of PF keys for command entry is strongly recommended to save time and to re- duce typing errors. There are default PF key definitions for many of the fre- quently used system commands. You may change the PF key definitions via option 0.3 or via the KEYS command. Your key definitions are automatically saved in your user profile. You may type information into the command/option field prior to pressing a PF key. The PF key definition is concatenated ahead of whatever you typed into the command/option field to form the complete command. Example. Suppose you define PF22 as an edit CHANGE ALL command with no explicit character strings, as follows: PF22 ===> change all Then, in edit, you type the following in the command field and press PF22 rather than the ENTER key: COMMAND ===> abc xyz The result is exactly the same as if you had typed the following in the command field and pressed the ENTER key: COMMAND ===> change all abc xyz Attention fields may also be used to simulate command entry. When an attention field is detected by the light pen or cursor select key, the processing is ex- actly the same as though the contents of the attention field had been typed into the command/option field and the ENTER key pressed. Again, the dialog function cannot sense the difference. NOTE: Attention fields are intended as an alternative means of selecting options from a menu. They should not be used on data entry panels, since any information that is typed by the user into an input field (including command/option fields) is lost when the attention oc- curs. Unlike PF keys, information in the command/option field is not concatenated with the contents of the attention field. Program Access Keys (PA1 and PA2) Use PA2 to reshow the last full screen image displayed by ISPF. You may need to reshow the display screen if you accidentally press the ERASE INPUT or CLEAR key, or if after typing data on the display screen, you decide to ignore the data, having not yet pressed the ENTER key or a PF key. Normally, PA1 should not be used while operating in ISPF full screen mode. PA1 can be used when operating in TSO line mode to exit from a TSO command or CLIST running under ISPF. If PA1 is pressed, while ISPF is in full screen mode, after the keyboard has been unlocked, it is treated like PA2 (RESHOW). However, if PA1 is pressed a second time without any intervening interaction, it causes the current function to be terminated and the primary option menu or a top-level selection panel sup- plied by the dialog writer to be redisplayed. If ISPF (under TSO) is operating in TEST mode, pressing PA1 causes an immediate exit from ISPF. When an ISPF function is executing, if PA1 is pressed after the keyboard has been manually unlocked (by pressing the RESET key), it usually, but not always, causes the current function to be terminated and the primary option menu to be redisplayed. Command stacking You may enter multiple commands in a single interaction. This is called command stacking. The commands are executed as if you had entered them one after the other. Stacked commands must be separated with a delimiter character. The default de- limiter is a semicolon (;). You may change it via option 0.1. Because SCRIPT, PL/I, and other languages use semi-colons in the text, it would be preferable to change your delimiter from a semi-colon to a back-slash (\). Examples: COMMAND ===> change all abc xyz;change all prq ghijk COMMAND ===> split;3.1 In the first example, two edit commands have been stacked. In the second exam- ple, a SPLIT command and an option selection have been stacked (the option se- lection applies to the lower screen created via the SPLIT). PF key definitions may also be equated to a stack of commands. Example: (set up PF22 depending on your chosen delimiter) PF22 ===> caps off;nulls on;down 3;hex vert PF22 ===> caps off\nulls on\down 3\hex vert Jump function The jump function allows you to move from one option to another option under the same primary option menu without displaying the primary option menu, as follows: In the command field on any panel, or in any displayable input field preceded by an arrow (===>), enter an equal sign (=) immediately followed by a primary op- tion value. For example, suppose you are in edit and wish to get into BROWSE (PDF option 1). COMMAND ===> =1 You are in edit and wish to get into IOF (option 6.9 from the master menu). In order to do this you must exit from the PDF primary options menu (=x) then stack (; or \) a request for IOF from the master panel for IOF (option 6.9). Enter: COMMAND ===> =x\6.9 To return to EDIT (PDF option 2.2) from IOF. Enter: COMMAND ===> =x\2.2 To get to the SEARCHFOR (PDF 3.14) utility panel from EDIT. Both are selected starting from the PDF options panel. COMMAND ===> =3.14 From EDIT to logoff (or get out of current session, if split) COMMAND ===> =x\=x Line commands used on PF keys Line commands are preceded by a colon. i.e. Text split (TS), entered as a pfkey entry PF 4 ===> :ts