HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
USING VPLUS/V AN INTRO. TO FORMS DESIGN Self-Paced Training Guide HP 3000 Computer Systems Printed in U.S.A. HP Part No. 32209-90004 Edition E0886 Printed Aug 1986
The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. HEWLETT-PACKARD MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND WITH REGARD TO THIS MATERIAL, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Hewlett-Packard shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance or use of this material. Hewlett-Packard assumes no responsibility for the use or reliability of its software on equipment that is not furnished by Hewlett-Packard. This document contains proprietary information which is protected by copyright. All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be photocopied, reproduced or translated to another language without the prior written consent of Hewlett-Packard Company. Æ Copyright 1979, 1980, 1986, Hewlett-Packard Company. PRINTING HISTORY New editions are complete revisions of the manual. Update packages, which are issued between editions, contain additional and replacement pages to be merged into the manual by the customer. The dates on the title page change only when a new edition or a new update is published. No information is incorporated into a reprinting unless it appears as a prior update; the edition does not change when an update is incorporated. The software code printed alongside the date indicates the version level of the software product at the time the manual or update was issued. Many product updates and fixes do not require manual changes and, conversely, manual corrections may be done without accompanying product changes. Therefore, do not expect a one-to-one correspondence between product updates and manual updates. First Edition Aug 1979 32209A.00.00 Second Edition Jan 1980 32209A.02.00 Third Edition Aug 1986 32209B.04.17 LIST OF EFFECTIVE PAGES The list of Effective Pages gives the date of the current edition and of any pages changed in updates to that edition. Within the manual, any page changed since the last edition is indicated by printing the date the changes were made on the bottom of the page. Changes are marked with a vertical bar in the margin. If an update is incorporated when an edition is reprinted, these bars are removed but the dates remain. No information is incorporated into a reprinting unless it appears as a prior update. Effective Pages Date -------------------------------------------- all August 1986 PREFACE The Using VPLUS/V: An Introduction to Forms Design self-paced training guide is intended to show you how to design forms. The Guide is useful on several levels. Its primary use is as a self-teaching tool to designing forms with FORMSPEC and then entering data in these forms through ENTRY. It can also be used as a guide to using particular features of either FORMSPEC or ENTRY. You should be familiar with the HP 3000 in order to use this guide. If not, refer to the HP 3000 Guide for the New User (32033-90009). As a training tool, the Guide is most effective if you sit down at a terminal connected to an HP 3000 system with VPLUS/V. Then, following the instructions in the Guide, design an increasingly complex set of forms and enter data into these forms at each step along the way. For best results, at least the first time, you should use the same forms and data illustrated in the Guide. The Guide starts with a very simple form with no edits and no special processing. It then proceeds step-by-step through the stages of forms design until you have a set of forms that use the highest level of processing. The final forms include automatic calculation of values, passing values between forms, and the use of conditions and phases. Possible relations of one form to another are illustrated through frozen, repeating, and appended forms. As a guide to specific features of FORMSPEC and ENTRY, you can treat the Guide as a set of separate examples. Each section illustrates a new feature of forms design by showing how this feature is actually used. Before going on to the next feature, it shows how each new form appears to the ENTRY user. In order to help you find the particular aspect of forms design or data entry that interests you, the first page of each section lists the subjects that are covered in that section. If you come across terms you do not understand, consult the Glossary of Terms at the end of the Guide. This Guide is not intended to be an exhaustive description of VPLUS/V. For all its features, you should refer to the VPLUS/V Reference Manual (32209-90001). CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS MANUAL NOTATION DESCRIPTION nonitalics Words in syntax statements which are not in italics must be entered exactly as shown. Punctuation characters other than brackets, braces and ellipses must also be entered exactly as shown. For example: EXIT; italics Words in syntax statements which are in italics denote a parameter which must be replaced by a user-supplied variable. For example: CLOSE filename [ ] An element inside brackets in a syntax statement is optional. Several elements stacked inside brackets means the user may select any one or none of these elements. For example: [A] User may select A or B or neither. [B] { } When several elements are stacked within braces in a syntax statement, the user must select one of those elements. For example: {A} {B} User must select A or B or C. {C} ... A horizontal ellipsis in a syntax statement indicates that a previous element may be repeated. For example: [,itemname]...; In addition, vertical and horizontal ellipses may be used in examples to indicate that portions of the example have been omitted. Å When necessary for clarity, the symbol ~ may be used in a syntax statement to indicate a required blank or an exact number of blanks. For example: SET[(modifier)]Å(variable); underlining When necessary for clarity in an example, user input may be underlined. For example: NEW NAME? ALPHA Brackets, braces or ellipses appearing in syntax or format statements which must be entered as shown will be underlined. For example: LET var[[subscript]] = value Output and input/output parameters are underlined. A notation in the description of each parameter distinguishes input/output from output parameters. For example: CREATE (parm1,parm2,flags,error) shading Shading represents inverse video on the terminal's screen. In addition, it is used to emphasize key portions of an example. The symbol may be used to indicate a key on the terminal's keyboard. For example, RETURN indicates the carriage return key. CONTROLchar Control characters are indicated by CONTROL followed by the character. For example, CONTROLY means the user presses the control key and the character Y simultaneously.