SYSTEM SUBROUTINES - APPENDIX C
| Published By | Date | Version | Knowledge Level | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revelation Technologies | 14 NOV 1989 | 2.X | EXPERT | Appendix |
Appendix 3
The Status Line
The Advanced Revelation status line consists of 10 cells divided into upper and lower sections. The upper section displays cells 1 to 3; the lower section, cells 7 to 10 (cell 10 is reserved for the system). Each cell has a fixed length. For Help level 2 in Advanced Revelation, cells 4-10 become a single cell containing Help information. This cell is protected.
Advanced Revelation Status Line Layout
By convention, certain cells tend to be used for specific functions:
| Cell | Length | Conventional Usage |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Name of current process (e.g. Paint). |
| 2 | 6 | Current function (e.g. Enter, Roam). |
| 3 | 64 | Dynamic information (program-specific). |
| 4 | 6 | Editor status. |
| 5 | 6 | (Varies). |
| 6 | 11 | (Usually Row indicator). |
| 7 | 8 | (Varies). |
| 8 | 15 | User name. |
| 9 | 18 | Updating Indexes indicator. |
| 10 | 8 | Level indicator. |
Adding New Status Lines
The SYS.TEXT_PARMS file contains templates for Advanced Revelation status lines. A template must be added to this file for user-defined status lines.
To add a template, add a record in the SYS.TEXT_PARMS file with a key of status_linen*STATUS. Where status_line is the name of your status line and n is the user Help level for the status line. For Help level 0 status lines, do not specify n.
The status line record has the following format:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| <1> | Name of template (must be unique) |
| <2> | The data to display in a specific cell. The values for individual cells are delimited by value marks. |
| <3> | Columnar formatting information for dynamic updates to cell 3. This field determines which column(s) within cell 3 are updated and the format of the update data. The specification must be an integer indicating the display column within cell 3 (1 is the first column in the cell), and two format values indicating the justification and length of display data (delimited by #). The column and format data are delimited by a subvalue mark. The justification and length format is: just#n where just may be L, R,or C and n is an integer. Multiple cell 3 column specifications are delimited by value marks (used by a MULTI.MODAL$ operation in STATUP). The complete format is: <column_n>just#length{@VM<column_n>just#length…} |
The STATUS.LIST Record
The STATUS.LIST record in the SYS.TEXT_PARMS file contains a list of status lines to be loaded at system initialization. Status lines that are not part of this list will be loaded as needed.
The system buffers as many status lines as are provided in STATUS.LIST. If a status line is required that is not in memory, the least recently used status line is removed from memory to make room for the new status line.