Enhanced line labels.
Brought to you by:
rexx
Menu
▾
▴
#69 Enhanced line labels.
I'm running THE 3.2 in ISPF mode. THE has labelled lines like mainframe ISPF. Lines labelled by the POINT command have some similar functionality, but two enhancements would make them more useful:
1. Labels are visible in the prefix area. It makes it easier to pick out what's been tagged and why as the display is scrolled.
2. Ability to assign a label by typing it into the prefix area:
.tofix
.a
.here
Item 2) is already implemented. THE also has the ability to assign multiple labels to a line by typing the label (a string starting with .) into the prefix area.
This would make implementing 1) difficult; if a line has multiple labels assigned to it, which one would be displayed?
Item 1 works under RC4 and .nl shows multiple labels.
Are labels visible in both theg and thec ?
Last edit: Bob Langill 2015-04-25
In mainframe ISPF edit in addition to assigning labels by typing in the prefix area, typing over them with blanks removes them. That would also be handy to have in the Hessling editor.
The .nl macro displays the labels for both thec and theg.
LesK said that item 1 - labels visible in the prefix area was working in RC4. Are they visible in both thec and theg?
If the prefix area displays only the label that's first alphabetically, or if labels are only displayed on lines with just one label, that works fine for me. I've used single label lines for years in the mainframe environment. Keeping it that way in the Hessling editor through usage convention is something I'm also good with.
Sorry, but I wasn't specific enough. THE does not display the labels in the prefix area, but the NL.THE (named lines) macro will display a popup of all the named lines and let you choose one to go to, or Q to quit from the popup.
Not exactly what you describe that ISPF can do but perhaps a little less distracting.
Code can always be 'marked' with a comment that can be used as a target for the LOCATE command if named lines aren't good enough for you.
Note also that you can set the width of the prefix area and use longer line names, even after you set the width back to where it was.
Instead of being a distraction, having the labels display in the prefix area provides a visual check when labels are used as part of a command target. Also, nl doesn't provide any context for the labelled lines as they're being displayed.
I agree that this feature should only be an option, perhaps PREFIX ON/OFF/LABEL where it would be up to a user's profile macro to make it act like a default.
This is a feature I'd like to see, but I feel that bug fix 282 is a much higher priority.
I guess if you're used to using this feature with TSO, then it comes naturally. I was a CMS & Xedit user, so I don't value the idea the way you do. For me, command targets are never line labels. I only use them for navigating the file... just my own habits.