3.2 Recommended Hardware and Software Functions

The following functions are recommended for terminals using 3270 emulation:

Alternate Character Mode: acsc, enacs , smacs, rmacs

The alternate character mode is used to draw the menus and dialog boxes. If this function is not supported, you can still use the menu interface, but the menus and dialog boxes will be drawn with characters such as - and + instead of solid lines.

If you are using the 3270 emulation program with the international option, you will be using the ISO 8859 character set instead of the PC character set. In this case, whether you can display the box-drawing characters depends on your version of the Solaris operating system and its curses library. You may be able to use them by modifying the acsc mapping, or you may have to remove the acsc mapping and use the - and + characters.

F2. . . F12 Function Keys: kf2 . . . kf12

These keys are used in 3270 emulation to represent the 3270 keys PF2 to PF12; some of them are also used as accelerators in the menu interface, providing a short-cut directly to certain dialogs or functions. If you do not have these keys, you can remap the 3270 keys to different keystrokes; the accelerator keys cannot be remapped, but it is always possible to reach the same dialogs or functions by using the main screen menus.

Left and Right Arrow Keys: kcub1 and kcuf1

These keys are used for moving within edit boxes, and for selecting buttons from radio groups. If you do not have these keys, you can replace text in edit boxes instead of modifying it, and you can use the Up and Down arrow keys or accelerator keys to select buttons from radio groups.

PageUp: kpp or ka3; PageDown: knp or kc3

These keys are used to move quickly within a listbox. The Up and Down arrow keys can be used instead, but are slower. Either of the termcap names may be used.

Home: ka1 or khome End: kc1

These keys are used to move quickly to the first or last entry in a listbox. The Up and Down arrow keys or PageUp and PageDown can be used instead, but are slower.

Backtab: kcbt

This key is useful for moving backwards through the sequence of items in a dialog box, and is also the default keystroke for the 3270 BACKTAB key. Within the menu interface, the keystroke Ctrl + B can always be used as an alternative to Backtab; the 3270 key can be remapped to a different keystroke if Backtab is not available.

Insert, Delete, and Backspace: kich1, kdch1, and kbs

Insert and Delete are used in the 3270 emulation program as defaults for the 3270 INSERT and DELETE keys. If they are not available, the 3270 keys can be remapped to different keystrokes. Delete and Backspace can be useful for modifying information in an edit box. (on some terminal types, such as the Wyse 60, Backspace is interpreted as a Left arrow key.)

Color Support: Colors, Pairs, setb, setf

The SNAP-IX menu interface can run without color support, but uses color if your terminal supports it. This applies particularly when communicating with host 3270 programs that support color.

Access to Terminal's Status Line: hs, fsl, tsl

If your terminal's hardware supports a status line to which user programs can write, you can customize 3270 sessions to write the 3270 status line to the terminal's status line. If this feature is not available, 3270 uses the last line of the screen to display the status line; depending on the 3270 screen model and the terminal's screen size, this may mean that the last line of the screen is shared between the 3270 display and the status line.