Disabling the screen from macros, Special characters, Disabling the screen from macros -44 – Atari XL User Manual

Page 44: Special characters -44, The last word 3.0 reference manual

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The Last Word 3.0 Reference Manual

7-44

<CTRL+Z>

Set toggles and test flags. Follow with one of the characters
below:

U

Put the keyboard into uppercase.

L

Put keyboard into lowercase.

I

Set insert mode.

O

Set overtype mode.

1-9 or 0 (0=10)

Select the appropriate text bank when
multiple banks are set up. Bank 1 is
always the MAIN (unextended) bank, and
2-10 correspond to banks of extended
memory.

B

Select the text bank the program was in
when the macro was called.

H

Hide the screen display.

U

Turn the screen on again.


These parameters should be in normal video and each setting
requires a separate <CTRL+Z>.

As well as setting flags, the <CTRL+Z> command can also test
certain conditions:

M

Test for block marking.

S

Test if any text is already selected.

C

Test for file edits since the text in memory
was last saved.

A

Test if file has already been saved.


You would precede these tests with a macro branch command.
The branch will occur if the above conditions are FALSE.

7.4.1 DISABLING THE SCREEN FROM MACROS


You can use the:

<SELECT+CTRL+Z> set toggles command

to turn the display on and off from within a macro. Follow with an "H" to "hide" any
screen updates, and a "V" to make them visible. Nothing is actually printed to the
screen when the display is disabled - the display will immediately change to reflect any
changes made by the macro when it is switched on again. This is a great way to make
macros run as if they were built-in commands, bypassing the prompts that usually
whizz by on the command line. Certain commands - such as print, view, spool, disk
menu and the four macro commands which display prompt information - re-enable the
display automatically.

7.4.2 SPECIAL CHARACTERS


<CTRL+P>

Entered in a filename dialogue will enter the device, path and
name of the current file.

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