---<br />title: "color_main"<br />original_file: "color_main"<br />generated: "2026-06-12 10:24:07"<br />---<br /><br />**<br /># <br />Introduction### Color 3270<br />## <br />Who Should Read This Guide<br />This guide is written primarily for use by those who will be using the MAGEC Application Development facilties to develop online applications using 3270 terminals with the Extended Color feature.<br />Copies of this guide should be distributed to:<br />Application Developers<br />System Programmers<br />## <br />Prerequisite Reading<br />This guide is written assuming that the reader is familiar with the online development processes of MAGEC. If you have (cont.)<br />not yet read the following chapters in the *Tutorials* manual then we recommend that you do so:<br />"Application Developer"<br />"Customization"<br />You might also find it handy to have "Analysis of the Generated MMP" from the *Programmer's Reference* manual nearby for reference.<br /># <br />Color 3270 Feature<br />MAGEC's Color 3270 Feature is necessary only to enable you to take advantage of the extended color and highlighting capabilities which are available on the newer terminal hardware.<br />If your site does not have color terminals, then you will be able to develop applications which will operate correctly (cont.)<br />on your non-color terminals and will also work correctly (and more impressively) when you do install the color (cont.)<br />terminals, without any program changes or re-compiles.<br />The MAGEC Color 3270 feature enables you to take advantage of the 7-color and Extended Highlighting features of your (cont.)<br />CRT terminals. If your terminals are not equipped with these features then you may ignore this section. If some or all (cont.)<br />of your terminals are 7-color then you will find this MAGEC feature extremely beneficial.<br />You can specify screen field color at the time you "paint" your screens and you can programmatically alter the color (cont.)<br />and set extended highlighting in your MMP's. MAGEC provides complete transparency for your applications and your Masks. (cont.)<br />If you specify color and extended highlighting for fields in your Mask and then execute the application from a (cont.)<br />non-7-color (either monochrome or 4-color) terminal, then MAGEC will automatically adjust the control character (cont.)<br />sequences accordingly. This means that your applications will still be usable from all your terminals, without any (cont.)<br />special programming by you. Applications which are developed without specifying color controls will, of course, still (cont.)<br />operate at both color and non-color terminals as well.<br />MAGEC determines whether your terminal, or monitor, can support Extended Color attributes by looking at the DVC-file (cont.)<br />definition for your terminal. If the terminal is not defined, MAGEC defaults safely to non-Extended color (cont.)<br />support.<br /># <br />How to Specify Color<br />## <br />Field Color in MSKDEF<br />If you wish to specify color control for a screen field you must do so via the online screen painting function MSKDEF. (cont.)<br />Using MSKDEF you set the initial value for the color attribute for a screen field. This tells MAGEC:<br />Initially set that field to the color specified.<br />Generate color and extended highlighting control fields in the Mask copybook for that screen field.<br />The color and extended highlighting support costs 6 bytes of space per screen field in the Mask Initialization Record (cont.)<br />(on the MSK file). This may reduce the number of screen fields you can fit on a Mask. The six byte area is only (cont.)<br />generated, however, for those screen fields for which you have specified color. The Mask copybook will include (cont.)<br />definitions for the special color and extended highlighting controls along with the usual screen field definitions. (cont.)<br />This enables you to alter the values of them just as you are able to set the value for the ordinary field (cont.)<br />attributes.<br />## <br />MSKDEF Specifications<br />When you select a screen field using the PF18 key (in MSKDEF), the selected field's specifications appear in a pop-up (cont.)<br />window display. You can modify any of them, as you learned in the tutorials for Application Development and (cont.)<br />Customization.<br />One of the specifications is "CLR", which is short for "color". You can specify the initial color for a screen field (cont.)<br />here. Either the numeric value code or the letter code may be used. The possible values are:<br />Value<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />Meaning---Letter Code<br />0<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />No color control---Default<br />1<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />Blue---Blue<br />2<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />Red---Red<br />3<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />Pink---Pink<br />4<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />Green---Green<br />5<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />Turquoise---Turquoise or Cyan<br />6<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />Yellow---Yellow<br />7<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />White (or Black)---White<br />If you specify a letter code, rather than its numeric equivalent, MAGEC will translate the letter code into its numeric (cont.)<br />equivalent for you. This is done merely to simplify your entry and to eliminate the need for you to memorize the (cont.)<br />numeric codes.<br />If you specify "0"(or "D"), MAGEC generates no color or extended highlighting controls for that field. If you specify (cont.)<br />any other value then MAGEC will generate the color and extended highlighting controls.<br />If you wish to alter the color of a screen field in your MMP, then you must specify a value other than "0" for that field, in order to have color support generated for it.<br />If you specify color support for any field(s) in a Mask, then that Mask is considered to be a color Mask. If you (cont.)<br />execute your MMP from a mainframe terminal which has the 4-color (Base Color) option and you are using a color Mask, (cont.)<br />then the terminal hardware will automatically revert to the "monochrome" state (all green, usually), except for those (cont.)<br />fields for which you have specified a color. This means that the 4-color option is set off and the 7-color option (if (cont.)<br />present) is set on. *This is a function of the 3270 control unit, not of MAGEC.*<br />## <br />MSKDEF, Pop-Up Specifications<br />Figure 01 is an example of how the pop-up window on MSKDEF's display appear when you have selected a screen field for "change" using PF18.<br />The specification for color is shown with a prompt of "CLR". It defauts to "0" (no color support), you can alter it to any valid value to specify color support for that screen field.<br />If you specify any valid (1 - 7, or their letter equivalents) color code here, then MAGEC will generate the 6 bytes of (cont.)<br />color and extended highlighting control codes in your Mask for that screen field and the initial color will be what you (cont.)<br />specified. The extended highlighting code will be initialized to NO-HILITE unless the 3270 attribute (ATTR:) is set to (cont.)<br />a high-intensity attribute (as: SADHNF, UNDHNF, etc.), in which case the extended highlighting will be set initially to (cont.)<br />BLINK.<br />The ordinary attribute highlighting (which controls high-intensity) and the extended highlighting are mutually (cont.)<br />exclusive, the hardware can only do one or the other for a given screen field. MAGEC automatically highlights error (cont.)<br />fields by either setting the high-intensity attribute or by setting the extended highlighting to BLINK, depending on (cont.)<br />what type of terminal you are at (7-color or not). MAGEC makes the determination at execution-time and adjusts (cont.)<br />accordingly.<br />## <br />Pop-Up HELP<br />The MSKDEF function has a special built-in HELP feature (in addition to the normal PF1 HELP key) which uses a pop-up (cont.)<br />window. You can press PF24 at any time to see the pop-up screen. When you press PF24 again, the pop-up window will (cont.)<br />disappear and your MSKDEF screen will be back to normal. The pop-up help display shows you the color codes as well as (cont.)<br />3270 attribute codes and other useful data to help you in using MSKDEF effectively.<br />While you are looking at the pop-up display you can press ENTER to scroll forward through the complete text<br />you can press PF24 to quit at any time.<br />| ```<br />MSKDEF mmm -- HIT ENTER TO CHANGE --<br />MAGEC SCREEN PAINTER&nbsp; (PFKEYS) --FIELD: 18=CHG 19=DEL 20=DUP 21=MOVE<br />LAST GEN=93&nbsp;08&nbsp;05 --LINE: 4=DUP 5=ERASE 6=MOVE 13=DEL 15=INS<br />LAST UPD=93&nbsp;06&nbsp;22 2494 BYTES MAX, nnnn USED, nnnn LEFT&nbsp; PF24=POP-UP HELP<br />```** <br />Figure 01 --&nbsp; Screen Field Specifications - MSKDEF in "Change mode"<br />*** <br /># <br />Controlling Color in an MMP<br />## <br />Mask Copybook<br />As you will recall, the Mask copybook which MAGEC generates for your Mask includes definitions for all your screen (cont.)<br />fields plus definitions for all the necessary control fields associated with them. For each field (assuming a screen (cont.)<br />field named "Sfield") it includes:<br />Sfield<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />the actual screen field<br />SfieldA<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />the 3270 attribute byte<br />SfieldE<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />the field's error flag<br />Sfield-POSN<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />the field's position on the screen<br />For numeric edit-type fields:<br />Sfield-N<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />numeric value of contents of Sfield<br />Sfield-ED<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />Cobol edit pattern for Sfield<br />For date edit-type fields:<br />Sfield-DAY-OF-WEEK<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />Sunday=1, Saturday=7, etc.<br />Sfield-JULIAN-DATE<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />Julian equivalent of entered date<br />For color-controlled fields:<br />Sfield-COLOR<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />color code<br />SfieldH<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />extended highlighting code<br />You can reference any of these control fields in your MMP. Your MMP's automatically have symbolic names defined for all the valid colors and extended highlighting options. They are:<br />Colors:<br />DEFAULT-COLOR<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />BLUE<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />RED<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />PINK<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />GREEN<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />TURQUOISE<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />YELLOW<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />WHITE<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />BLACK<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />Highlighting:<br /><br />next: color02.md.txt