Edit commands and PF key processing

In the Edit function there are some differences between the way ISPF processes commands when they are entered from the command line as compared to when they are entered by a combination of the command line and a function (PF) key. In most applications, when you press a PF key, ISPF concatenates the contents of the command line to the definition of the function key. The result is handled as a single command by ISPF or by the application.

When you use a PF key defined as a scroll command (UP, DOWN, LEFT, or RIGHT) the system processes the command as follows:

If the concatenation of the scroll command PF key definition and the contents of the command line does not create a valid scroll command:
- If the word after the scroll command PF key definition begins with a numeric character (0-9), you get a message telling you the scroll amount was not valid.
- Otherwise, edit processes the contents of the command line as an edit command, then processes the scroll command using the default scroll amount.
  In this case, the processing of the command line contents as an edit command bypasses the command table, because the command table is used to resolve the scroll key.
If the concatenation of the scroll command PF key definition and the contents of the command line does create a valid scroll command edit scrolls the screen the specified amount.

If you manually type a scroll command on the command line (you do not use any PF keys) and it has an operand, the operand is checked for validity. However, in the case of a scroll operand that is not valid, the operand is not processed as a separate edit command as it is when used with a PF key.

When you use a PF key defined as RFIND or RCHANGE, first the command line is processed and then the PF key is actioned. For example, if you type a Find command then press PF5, the new find string is passed to RFIND:

Table 1. Examples of passing a string to RFIND
Command	Action	Result
F STR1	press Enter	Edit finds the next occurrence of STR1
F STR2	press PF5	RFIND finds the next occurrence of STR2

If you type C STR1 STR2 and press Enter to change STR1 to STR2, then on the command line type F STR3 and press the RCHANGE key, this results in the command C STR3 STR2 being run:

Table 2. An example of passing string values to RCHANGE
Command	Action	Result
C STR1 STR2	press Enter	Edit changes the next occurrence of STR1 to STR2
F STR3	press PF6	RCHANGE changes the next occurrence of STR3 to STR2

You can change this behavior of RCHANGE by using the EDITSET command to set an option, Force ISRE776 if RCHANGE passed arguments. If this option is set, RCHANGE will treat anything that you type on the command line as an invalid parameter and will return an error message ISRE776.