Writing Messages to the System Console

Two intrinsics are available that allow you to print a character string directly from your program to the system console:

PRINTOP transmits an ASCII character string from your program to the system console.
PRINTOPREPLY transmits an ASCII character string from your program to the system console, and solicits a reply from the system operator.

Writing a message to the system console

Example 8-4 is an HP Pascal/iX program segment that illustrates how your program can call the PRINTOP intrinsic to transmit a message from a character array in your program to the System Console.

Example 8-4. Writing a Message to the System Console

            .

            .

            .

   var

      message      : packed array [1..56] of char;  {declare PRINTOP parm}

      length       : shortint;                      {declare PRINTOP parm}

      controlcode  : 0..65535;                      {declare PRINTOP parm}

            .

            .

            .

      message      := 'Message to Operator';      {message to transmit   }

      length       := -19              {actual length in bytes           }

      controlcode  := 0;               {set to default                   }

      PRINTOP ( message,

                length,

                controlcode

               );

            .

            .

            .

The PRINTOP intrinsic transmits a maximum of 56 ASCII characters to the system console. Longer messages are truncated to 56 characters. For more information about PRINTOP intrinsic parameters, refer to the MPE/iX Intrinsics Reference Manual (32650-90028).

Writing a message to the system console and requesting a reply

The PRINTOPREPLY intrinsic can be used to transmit a message from an array in your program to the system console and to request that a reply be returned. The message that you send must be no longer than 50 characters in length. PRINTOPREPLY can return a maximum of 31 ASCII characters to your program. For example, a program could ask the system operator if the line printer contains a certain type of form. If the response is affirmative, the program could then write information on these forms.

Example 8-5 is an HP Pascal/iX code segment containing a PRINTOPREPLY intrinsic call. The program is asking the system operator if the line printer device LP contains the correct forms. The program is requesting that the system operator respond with a simply YES or NO response. The program takes appropriate action based upon the characters returned in reply.

Example 8-5. Writing a Message to the System Console and Requesting a Reply

            .

            .

            .

   var

      message      : packed array [1..50] of char;  {PRINTOREPLY parameter}

      length       : shortint;                      {PRINTOREPLY parameter}

      zero         : shortint;                      {PRINTOREPLY parameter}

      reply        : packed array [1..31] of char;  {PRINTOREPLY parameter}

      expected_length: shortint;                    {PRINTOREPLY parameter}

      counter

            .

            .

            .

      message      := 'Does device LP contain the correct forms? [Y/N]';

      length       := -47              {length of message                }

      zero         := 0;

      reply        := '   ';           {initialize reply                 }

      expected_length := -3            {expected reply Y/YES/N/NO        }

      PRINTOREPLY ( message,           {message sent to system console   }

                    length,            {length of message in range 0..50 }

                    zero,              {required, but not used. Set to 0 }

                    reply              {reply returned in this array     }

                    expected_length    {length of reply in range 0..31   }

                  );

            .

            .

            .

The actual length of the System Operator's reply is returned to expected_length. For more information about PRINTOREPLY intrinsic parameters, refer to the MPE/iX Intrinsics Reference Manual (32650-90028).

Writing Messages to the System Console

Technical documentation

» Table of Contents

» Index

Writing a message to the system console

Writing a message to the system console and requesting a reply