HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Chapter 2 SYSTEM INFORMATION
The New MPE XL User Interface
by Jeff Vance and John Korondy--Information Technology Group
MPE XL USER INTERFACE ENHANCEMENTS
Although the MPE XL User Interface is compatible with MPE V/E, it has
been greatly enhanced to provide a more powerful and flexible interface
for the end-user. The User Interface has began an evolution to a command
language. It can now be used to perform complex tasks, which previously
were only available by writing programs.
Below is a brief summary of the User Interface enhancements:
* New commands - calc, chgroup, copy, deletevar, do, echo, input,
listredo, print, setvar, showvar, while.
* Variables - an extension of JCWs. Variables can be string, integer,
or Boolean. There are 58 predefined variables such as: HPACCOUNT,
HPCONS HPLDEVIN, HPUSERCAP, HPPROMPT, HPPATH, etc. These predefined
variables eliminate the need for several of the intrinsics.
* Expression evaluation - more powerful than Pascal. Expressions can
appear in any command. Common examples are the :if, :while,
:setvar, :calc commands. Functions do parsing, arithmetic, bit
extraction/shifting, number conversion, and obtain file information.
* Command files - similar to UDCs, but very easy to modify since they
are not cataloged.
For more information refer to the TECHNICAL ARTICLES section in the
Communicator.