Re: CL prompting

You can control this per user profile, e.g.:

   CHGUSRPRF USRPRF(XY) USROPT(*CLKWD)

Enjoy your System/38 CPF experience! :-)








On Monday, December 8, 2025 at 06:32:45 PM EST, x y <xy6581@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:





I've been using condition prompting since the early days of the System/38
and everything works great...except I've decided I'd rather show the prompt
keywords than the prompt values.

Specifically (and for "Family Guy" fans, I'm not talking about Jillian's
"specific" time), when prompting at the command level, is there a way to
force the "keyword" display instead of the "values" display?

Yes, I can tell the users to press F11 but that's going to confuse some.

Why change?  Showing the keywords will help with documentation and training
as well as reducing user panic should I change the order of the
parameters.  When a command has many parameters, I create a UIM help panel
for the command (HLPPNLGRP and HLPID on CRTCMD) and can explain the
parameter fully with a simple ALT+F1.  When multiple values exist for a
parameter, you only see what fits into about 25 characters and some users
will require assistance if they don't see a parameter they were expecting
or was specified in the user guide.

I use QCAPCMD in my soft menu application and that API doesn't appear to
offer the option I'm looking for.

Example: for an OUTQ parameter, the text is "Output queue".  When
prompting, I see the default value ("*JOB") and the prompt values as "Name,
*JOB".  What I'd rather see is the keyword, the default value ("*JOB"), no
confusing partial list of values, and the user knowing pressing ALT+F1 on
any specific parameter will provide a detailed explanation.

Sidebar: if you build the command in a variable and call QCMDCHK with the
variable and its length, you'll get a fully-prompted command string back
and all ready to go into SBMJOB.  It's a painless solution to the problem
of passing parameters into submitted jobs.

Thanks.