Xerox Printer manual Command format, Reserved words, Special characters

HOST FORMS DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE

Command format

Each HFDL command consists of a command identifier, parameters, and reserved words associated with the function. The following conventions apply:

·A semicolon (;) terminates a command.

·A comment line begins with the word COMMENT, followed by a comment and semicolon (;).

·A blank space separates reserved words and parameters.

·Commas are legal only as shown in the command syntax flow charts.

Command information appears within the first 72 columns of each record. Commands can continue for multiple records; however, there is a limit of 4,096 characters allowed in one text block. Multiple commands can appear in one record if you separate them with semicolons.

The system ignores records containing all blanks. You can use them to separate command statements.

Reserved words

Reserved words appear in bold uppercase text in the command syntax flow charts in this chapter. You can abbreviate many reserved words to the first three characters (except FMTn, where you must specify the integer n). Refer to the ªApproved abbreviations for reserved wordsº appendix for the list of abbreviations you can use. Avoid using reserved words as section or form names.

Special characters

Use the following special characters to meet certain requirements within the command statements:

·A single quote (') encloses a text string, for example, 'This is a font count' produces ªThis is a font countº in the printed version. When you use a reserved word such as ªfontº in a string, it is not processed as a command.

·A pound symbol (#) within a text string shifts the text between uppercase and lowercase characters, and vice versa. Each string begins with an uppercase character. For example, F#IRST produces ªFirstº in the printed version. To shift back to uppercase characters, you must enter another pound symbol (#) character in the text string. For example, R#EV#A produces ªRevAº in the printed version.

You can substitute the pound symbol (#) with any other character by using the SHIFT operand at the COMPILE command. Refer to the "Command Syntax" section in the "Managing and printing sample forms" chapter for information on how to use this operand.

·An exclamation point (!) specifies a character in the font character set, not the keyboard character. Enter an exclamation point (!) and the ASCII hexadecimal code point for the character you want to print. For example, 65!7B

3±2 HOST FORMS DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE 3.2 FOR IBM MVS CREATING FORMS