Curs Pos

In option 2 of the main file, the user 'painted' the screen that goes with this routine. During the painting process, the cursor positions were defined using the '~' character. Each group of '~' represented a cursor position. On filing the screen away, the program converted each group of '~' into a set of three parameters. These are start column position, start row position and the number of characters in the group i.e. field length. These were stored on the parameter files in the order they appear on the screen.

The number of the set of cursor parameters is given by counting the groups of '~' left to right, top to bottom. Each set of parameters can now be reference by using this sequence number. Thus by assigning the number of a set of parameters to a prompt, one is also assigning the position on the screen where the field is to be displayed as well as the number of characters the display will take up. It also defines the maximum length of the field on input.

If the user is unsure of the cursor number then hitting the [INVERT] function key will take the user into the screen painter. Here the cursor number can be worked out. The user can also get the system to number the prompts by typing 'N' when in FUNCTION mode in the screen painter. While in the screen painter, the user can also make changes to the screen layout if any modifications are required.

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