HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Lesson 8 Online Help
Lesson 8 presents the online help facility:
* information on your terminal screen about the MPE/iX commands
* how to study MPE/iX command syntax on your own
The online help facility
The help facility contains almost all of the references of the MPE/iX
Commands Reference Manual (32650-60002). Because it is online, help
gives you its information on your terminal screen.
The command to start the help facility is HELP.
Getting into help
To get into help, type HELP at the MPE/iX prompt and press Return.
Try it:
HELPReturn
You will see this on the screen:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| |
| This is the MPE XL Help Facility |
| _ |
| * Enter SUMMARY, CLASS, a commandname, or HELPSTUDY |
| * |
| ------------------------------------------------- |
| SUMMARY......... . A summary of changes in MPE XL. |
| |
| CLASS......... . Classes of Commands |
| SESSIONS, JOBS, FILES, SUBSYSTEMS, |
| ETC. |
| |
| < command name >..... . COMMAND entries, by name |
| |
| < command name >< keyword > COMMAND entry with keyword |
| PARMS, OPERATION, EXAMPLE |
| |
| HELPSTUDY......... A beginner's introduction to Help |
| |
| EXIT............To leave the Help Facility. |
| |
| HELP has a hierarchical structure. |
| You can use UPPERCASE or lowercase. |
| |
| >>>>>>>>>>> The name of this screen is HELPMENU |
| <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< |
| > |
| |
________________________________________________________________________
Notice that the help facility has its own prompt, the "greater than" (>)
symbol.
Getting out of help
When you are using the help facility, you see the help prompt whenever
the scrolling has stopped.
To get out of help, type EXIT or E at the help prompt and press Return.
Do that now to get out of help.
>EReturn
When you see the system prompt (:), you are no longer in help. You are
back to where you started before you asked for help.
The instructions here for using the help facility are very abbreviated.
Getting around in help
Suppose that you want to learn about the REDO command.
Start the help facility again.
HELPReturn
The help prompt at the lower left corner of your screen tells you that
the help facility is waiting for your instruction.
Enter:
REDOReturn
What happens?
You will see this on the
screen:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| |
| :REDO |
| |
| Allows the user to edit and reexecute any command still |
| retained in the command line history stack. (MODIFIED) |
| |
| SYNTAX |
| |
| :REDO [ [CMD=]cmdid][ [;EDIT=]editstring] |
| |
| NOTE: |
| |
| This command follows the more flexible MPE/iX command line |
| syntax. |
| Refer to the MPE/iX Commands Reference Manual (32650-60002). |
| |
| KEYWORDS: PARMS,OPERATION,EXAMPLE |
| > |
| |
________________________________________________________________________
Syntax.
Syntax is a formal way of diagramming a command and all of its
parameters. The rest of the help entry on each command is devoted to
explaining the command, its parameters, and how to use them. You can
study syntax diagrams in the MPE/iX Commands Reference Manual
(32650-60002) and in the HELPSTUDY portion of the help facility.
The help keywords.
A keyword tells you about other information that is available on the
command you that want to look up:
* The PARMS keyword (short for parameters) shows you definitions of
the parameters for a command.
Enter:
REDO PARMSReturn
* The OPERATION keyword explains the operation of the command.
Enter:
REDO OPERATIONReturn
* The EXAMPLE keyword shows you one or more examples of the command
as it is used.
Enter:
REDO EXAMPLEReturn
If you enter REDOReturn, you can press Return to jump forward to PARMS.
Press Return again and jump forward to OPERATION, and then to EXAMPLE.
A final press of Return takes you to the next command entry.
Try looking up a command (SHOWJOB, for instance). Then press Return one
or more times to see how it works.
The help facility screen.
Whenever you ask for information on a command (without specifying a
keyword) you will see:
* the command name
* a definition of the command
* the command syntax
* any special notes about the command
* keywords for the command
A more detailed discussion of commands and their syntax can be found in
the 900 Series HP3000: Advanced Skills course, and in the help facility
itself, under the entry HELPSTUDY.
The help facility's online tutorial.
The help facility has a self-paced, online tutorial called HELPSTUDY.
To get to HELPSTUDY, you must first be in the help facility. Once there,
enter:
helpstudyReturn
Here is what you see:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
| |
| OOOO OOOO OOO OO |
| OO OO OO OOOO |
| OO OO OOOOOOO OO OOOOOOO OO |
| OOOOOOOO OO OO OO OO OO |
| OO OO OOOOOOOO OO OO OO OO |
| OO OO OO OO OO OO OOOO |
| OOOO OOOO OOOOOOO OOOO OOOOOOO OO |
| OO |
| OO |
| This is a study aid for OO |
| beginners in MPE XL OOO |
| |
| CHOOSE ONE...AND DO THIS... |
| |
| 1) FIND A COMMAND Enter its name and press <RETURN |
| > |
| |
| 2) QUIT HELP Enter E (or e) and press <RETURN |
| > |
| |
| 3) SHOW ME MORE Simply press <RETURN > |
| ABOUT HELP AND ...useful if you are new to HP |
| computers |
| COMMANDS ...or just new to computers |
| > |
| |
________________________________________________________________________
Press Return.
Use Return to "page" forward. You may wish to spend a few minutes to
skim the text.
To leave HELPSTUDY and stay in the help facility, enter the name of any
command that you want to look up. Enter HELPMENU to go back to the very
beginning of the help facility.
When you are ready to leave the help facility, do this:
EReturn