The attribute byte does not really take up a space on the screen. Within
the datasteam, you can put stuff on the screen 'out of order' and thus
put something else on the screen that overwrites the spot you thought
you put the attribute byte into. So, if build the datasteam from end to
start, you can do some nifty things. No, you can't do it with BMS.
Many years ago, another programmer showed me the technique he used in
assembler programs.
A few years later, I wrote a set of Cobol routines to build screens
without using BMS. And using his method, I was able to even change the
color within what appeared to be a single field.
One issue is that the rules are different in what you can do for input
vs output fields.
It's been 25+ years since I did this, so many of the details have been
misplaced within my gray matter. :-)
Tony Thigpen
Phil Smith III wrote on 2/25/22 18:55:
Shmuel wrote:
Huh? Where does "the image won't fit on a 24x80 screen" come from?
Supporting new device capabilities does not mean that old devices are
unsupported. ISPF supports, e.g., colors, but it works on a 3277 as well as
it ever did. Had IBM done as I suggest, there would not have been a
requirement for a new geometry and ISPF would still work on an old device.
If I can put data in all 1920 characters, then that image won't fit on an
older screen where the attribute bytes take up space. (Nor will stuff line
up correctly, probably.)
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