Features of UIPACK Version 3

The following major enhancements have been added in Version 3:-

1. Symbols. Symbols operate in a fashion similar to VAX/VMS Symbols. They are keywords that have an Equivalence Text String associated with them. Whenever the Symbol Name is detected in the Input Stream it is replaced by the Equivalence Text String. Symbols may be defined, dropped or modified dynamically from the keyboard or from UIPACK Definition Files.
2. Pop Up Menus. These may be setup in ViewText Mode of Operation. If the Viewport to display a Menu is invisible at the time the request to use the menu is made, it is displayed, and then hidden following the User Input. If the Viewport is already visible then it will remain so.
3. Page Oriented Help. Online Help is now page oriented such that the display will pause automatically whenever the terminal screen (or Viewport) becomes full. A null response at this time (just hitting the RETURN key) will cause the next page of help information to be displayed, whereas a non-null response will be treated as the request for a new help topic or subtopic.
4. UIPACK Help. Online Help for UIPACK is available for all Application Programs. It is accessed by a ``?UIPACK" response.
5. Prompted Input Help. Online Help is now available for the Prompted Input Subprograms (UI_GET_xxxx). A User response of ``?" will cause help information to be displayed for the appropriate Subprogram, describing the allowed response syntax etc.
6. Optional Arguments have been added to the Mode setting Subprograms whereby the previous mode may be returned to the caller. This avoids having to use the appropriate inquiry Subprogram if the original mode is to be restored later.
7. Prompts and User responses are now saved in the Input Viewport, allowing them to scroll normally when using Text Viewports.
8. Verb Groups may now lie in the range 0-4095 rather than 0-255. YBOS limits the actual number of Verb Groups attainable in a single Application Program to less than this (see Appendix A.7).