Mnemonic choice selection

ISPF supports mnemonic selection of action bar choices for both host system and GUI mode display and pull-down choices when running in GUI mode.

Mnemonic selection of action bar choices and pull-down choices is automatically determined by ISPDTLC when a non-DBCS conversion is in process. When DBCS is specified, mnemonics are not automatically generated. The default mnemonic character generation can be overridden by adding the MNEMGEN=NO attribute to the AB tag for non-DBCS conversions. The mnemonic character that is selected is the first alphabetic or numeric character from the current action bar choice or pull-down choice description text that is not already used as a mnemonic character within the action bar or current pull-down. If a unique mnemonic character cannot be selected, the conversion utility issues a message. DBCS characters cannot be specified as mnemonics. See M (Mnemonic) for a description of how to provide a mnemonic character that is not part of the normal choice description.

Mnemonic selection of action bar choices and pull-down choices may be specified by placing the M tag immediately in front of the character to be used as a mnemonic within the ABC or PDC text.

The automatic mnemonic generation does not replace any valid mnemonic specified by the M tag. (If the mnemonic character specified by the M tag is a duplicate of a mnemonic character previously selected by the generation process, a message is issued and ISPDTLC attempts to replace the duplicate value that was specified.) This processing allows the combination of specific character selection with the automatic generation feature, as long as the characters automatically generated and the characters specified (by the M tag) are unique.

<!doctype dm system (
  <!ENTITY actnfile system>
  <!ENTITY actnoptn system>
  <!ENTITY actnhelp system>
)>

<panel name=pdcxmp1>Sample Application
  <ab>
    &actnfile;

    <abc>View
      <pdc checkvar=sorttype match=N><M>Name
        <action run=name>
      <pdc checkvar=sorttype match=O><M>Owner
        <action run=owner>
      <pdc checkvar=sorttype match=D><M>Date
        <action run=date>
      <pdc checkvar=sorttype match=S><M>Size
        <action run=size>

    &actnoptn;
    &actnhelp;
  </ab>

  <topinst>
  <area>
  </area>
  <cmdarea>
</panel>

If the application sets the variable sorttype to "D" before the panel is displayed, then the Date choice is preselected.

Figure 1 shows how the View pull-down would appear in this scenario.