Jags It's not at all clear from this response that you managed to extract the message from the frivolity in my previous message that
>>>>> HAVING A BLINKING MESSAGE JUST ISN'T SENSIBLE <<<<< It was tried with NLDM around the early 1980s and it failed miserably! Now, if you, as you propose, need to get to setting up your 3270 data to the level of setting up a "blinking" attribute following an SFE (start field extended) character you may as well go the small extra step of setting up a "blinking" attribute following an SA (set attribute) character which operates at the level of just the following text character and do as I did, namely, substitute what would be a blank, X'40', between the words of your message with a "rugby ball", X'3F', - I don't know the official name - character. For help with the programming of the 3270 data stream see the following: 3174 Establishment Controller Functional Description, GA23-0218-11 http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/cn7a7003/ I hope that's clear this time. Chris Mason On Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:36:13 +0530, jagadishan perumal <jagadish...@gmail.com> wrote: >Chris, > >great humour(JAGS MAIN).... I am trying out the option for getting blinking >message > >On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 2:28 PM, Chris Mason <chrisma...@belgacom.net>wrote: > >> Jags >> >> Probably we should have the name of the list changed from IBM-MAIN to JAGS- >> MAIN! >> >> > instead is it possible to just have a blinking Message.... >> >> Indeed, arranging to have a field of characters or individual characters >> blink is >> a possibility offered by the extension of the basic 3270 data stream >> capabilities introduced in the latter end of the '70s - at about the same >> time >> that the 3279 and colour brightened our 3270 lives. >> >> Back in the early days of the Network Logical Data Manager (NLDM) product - >> which, because the task of installing independent components over the >> programming environment supplied by the Network Communications Control >> Facility (NCCF) product together with the Network Problem Determination Aid >> (NPDA) product was just too complicated for the poor lambs of system >> programmers at the time, later became integrated into NetView - some bright >> spark of a developer came up with the wizard wheeze of an idea to have >> blinking messages - what fun!!! >> >> The trouble is - to the accompaniment of many words coloured according to >> the IBM colour - nobody could <many expletives deleted> actually manage to >> read the messages unless they were prepared to rest their eyes in a dark >> room afterwards and probably book an ophthalmologist's appointment. >> >> I believe an APAR swiftly followed to get rid of this quite ridiculous >> technique >> to highlight messages! >> >> However, there was the germ of a good idea here and I decided to try out a >> massively more practical version in a little transaction program I wrote - >> for >> managing the 3270 printer authorisation matrix interactively - initially >> for CICS >> and then NCCF when the necessary programming became available. >> >> Rather than have the *text* of the error messages blink, the cause of the >> hullabaloo or brouhaha - whichever you prefer - with the NLDM messages, I >> replaced the blanks between the words, X'40', with X'3F' and had these >> individual characters, in some 3270 display implementations having the >> appearance of a football as used when following the rules of Rugby School >> or >> that barbaric full body armour American derivation, blink. >> >> Thus I achieved the objective of drawing attention to the error messages >> while maintaining readability, the best of both worlds, as it were! >> >> Chris Mason >> >> On Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:43:53 +0530, jagadishan perumal >> <jagadish...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> >Thanks then the constant moving could prove a tedious time... instead is >> it >> >possible to just have a blinking Message.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
