To answer that question, let’s take a look at a particular menu:

(Press q to see the top line of this menu on your screen.) Each line in the menu lists a job the HX-20 may perform, by spec-

ifying a key and the job associated with that key. To choose an item from the menu, press the key listed next to that item. Thus, press m/I@ t o initialize the system, press q to select the Monitor, or press q to select BASIC. What could be simpler?

Some jobs are always available:

INITIALIZE Initialize memory and the calendar clock. See page 25.

MONITOR The monitor lets you enter and modify machine language programs. For more information, see the

Epson HX-20 Technical Reference Manual.

BASIC BASIC lets you enter, change, and run BASIC programs . See the Epson HX-20 BASIC Tutorial and Reference Manual.

Your menu may list other jobs as well. For example, one or more jobs will be listed in your menu if you have installed option ROM for word processing, telecommunications, or some other applica- tion. The menu may also list BASIC and machine language programs that you have stored in memory.

When you press the key for a given item, the menu will disappear and the HX-20 will begin to perform the job you requested. Thus, the menu will no longer be active. Instead, the program you selected will be active. The HX-20 will not be “in the menu” any more, but will rather be “in BASIC,” or “in the MONITOR,“ or in some other application. Instead of responding to the menu-viewing keys listed in Table 4-1, the HX-20 will respond only to keystrokes and commands recognized by the application you choose.

To use almost any application, however, you must learn to use the screen editor.

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