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Document	V4I4A4
Title	Customising the Status Line
Keywords	STATUS LINE SYS.TEXT_PARMS
Text	Images

When designing applications WITH an AREV "look and feel" it can be desirable
to create highlighted words on the bottom status line (as WITH the system
help level 2 function keys) In addition when indicating CURSOR key
movement it makes sense to use the arrow characters to illustrate the keys
to press rather than spelling out "Cursor Left" "Cursor Right" etc

Two minor points need to be made before the explanation proper begins
Firstly Status Line images are now stored in SYS TEXT_PARMS WITH a key of
Process*Status (or Process2*Status for help level 2 images) Secondly there
are now only two supported help levels 0 and 2 Whilst it is possible to
use a help level of 1 this can lead to PROBLEMS

When adding new status line images it behoves us to cater for both levels of
user so two status line images should be created per process one for level
0 and one for level 2 Statup will automatically select the correct image
when asked to load Process This discussion will concentrate on level 2
status images but it can be amended for level 0

The LAYOUT of the status line image is documented in various places (UTILITY
subdirectory on pre release 2 0 Programmer's Reference on 2 1 System
Subroutines book) but the field that is of interest when customising
highlighted words is field 2 This field (in a level 2 status line)
contains four MULTIVALUES three for the top three boxes of the status line
and the fourth for the bottom line Highlighted words can only be put into
the fourth multivalue

Very Simple Program to Test Amended Status Lines
So that the new status lines can be tested a simple program such as the one
following can be used Simply compile catalog and attach to a macro key

Subroutine TestStat
/*
Note that WITH help level 2 this will display record SPREZZ2
*/
Call Statup(4 "SPREZZ" Save)
Call Input Char(x)
Call Statup(5 "" Save)
Return

Adding Highlighted Words
The key point here is the use of hyphens In multivalue 4 everything up to
the first hyphen will be highlighted then AFTER the first hyphen every
word before a hyphen will be highlighted Thus if a record were created
called SPREZZ2*STATUS WITH a LAYOUT as follows

MENU
Sprezz�RevM �Field 3�This is Highlighted This Isn't ThisIs This Isn't
1

it would appear on the status line as follows

�Sprezz�RevM �Field 3 �
��Ĵ
�This is Highlighted This Isn't ThisIs This Isn't�

Note then that to give the illusion of multiple words being highlighted
mixed capitalisation must be used (I E ThisIs rather than This Is where
only the Is would be highlighted) Note further that when the text in
the record is shorter than the WIDTH of the status line cell a number of
spaces must be appended AFTER the text to display to the width of the cell
With the final cell this can be made easier by appending a VALUE MARK

Adding Arrow Characters To the Status Line
Unfortunately the ASCII characters for the various arrow symbols cannot be
added DIRECTLY into the status line as they cause the SCREEN to become
corrupted To get around this a fix has been provided It would not be
uncharitable to describe this fix as a kludge

Essentially five characters have been provided that are taken by the system
to mean that they should be replaced WITH arrow characters when they are
bracketed by *'s and a flag VARIABLE is set The characters and their
meanings are as follows

# � (represents a double headed arrow)

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