HP Data Entry and Forms Management System (VPLUS) Reference Manual (32209-90024)

Chapter 6 237
USING VPLUS INTRINSICS
COMMUNICATION AREA
Not supported on data capture devices.
NOTE The comarea size required for each feature can be summarized as follows:
FEATURE COMAREALEN
Data Capture Terminal 85
ARB Feature 70
All Others 60
The position of each item in comarea is given as a two-byte word offset in the table; for
SPL programs the word offset starts with zero; for all other programs, it starts with one.
The
comarea must be at least 60 two-byte words long (120 bytes) unless you are working
with an ARB. To take advantage of the ARB feature, the
comarea must be at least 70
words long. The COMAREA array size must be at least as large as the sum of the values of
comarealen plus usrbuflen . For BASIC programs, the area must be extended to include
space for the form and data buffers and for internal tables. For non-BASIC programs, the
DL area is used for these buffers and internal tables, and the communication area need
not be extended. However, non-BASIC programs must be careful not to use the DL area for
other purposes when using VPLUS. Refer to Appendix E for more information on the DL
area.
Before calling the first VPLUS intrinsic, you should initialize the entire
comarea to binary
zeroes. Do not change
comarea values between calls except under documented conditions.
Then, if you are coding in a programming language other than COBOL, you must set
Table 6-5. Communication Area Contents for Data Capture Devices
Data Type Position Offset Name Function
Integer
(Two-byte)
61-70 60-69 Reserved for
system use
—
71 70 numflds number of fields on current form
72 71 splitpause length of pause (in seconds)
73 72 leftmodule type of terminal options
74 73 rightmodule type of terminal options
75 74 keyboard type of keyboard
76 75 display type of display
77 76 keyboardover whether to override or not
Character
(Two-byte)
78 77 errorlight error detection light
Logical
(two-byte)
79-80 78-79 userlightson Lights on/off indicator
Integer
(two-byte)
81-85 80-84 Reserved for
system use
—