Reader's Clinic - Prompting for Passwords

Published By	Date	Version	Knowledge Level	Keywords
Sprezzatura Ltd	01 NOV 1989	1.15+	EXPERT	MESSAGE, MSG, GET.PASSWORD, NOECHO.MSG, INPUT, SCRIBE

Tony Mahler of Prosolve (England) asks "Can message can be called for input (as with R and RC) but not display output on screen? I need this to prompt for passwords."

Those in possession of the utility diskette which came with the August/September issue will be aware that this can be answered by reference to the routine GET.PASSWORD included in the program file which uses a system routine called NOECHO.MSG (this routine prompts for input without displaying any information on screen). Alternatively, using the I modifier on the R code with MSG will cause INPUT to be used in place of SCRIBE. Thus echo could be turned off, MSG called, the input prompted for and then echo reenabled ie

   DECLARE SUBROUTINE MSG
   PW = ""
   ECHO OFF
   MSG("P/word","RIC", PW,"")
   ECHO OFF

(Volume 1, Issue 6, Page 3)