Options - General

If this box is checked, SPFLite will make a sound when an error message is displayed or if a key is pressed in a non-typing area. If this box is not checked, then no sound will occur. The specific sound produced is controlled by the Windows program event called Asterisk. To change the sound, go to Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices Properties, click on the Sounds tab, and click on the Windows/Asterisk program event. From the Sounds dropdown or the Browse button, select a sound you wish to use.

Visual BEEP on Errors

If Audible BEEP is turned off when the sound might be disturbing, it may still be helpful to have some indication when an error occurs. (This is especially true if a user were hearing-impaired and could not hear the Audible Beep.) If this option is chosen, SPFLite will flash the word Command in the upper left corner of the screen when an error occurs. It is allowable to have both options selected to receive both an audible and visual indication of an error.

Delete to Recycle Bin

Files can be deleted by using the Delete line command D in File Manager, or by a CANCEL DELETE primary command. If this box is checked, deleted files are sent to the Recycle Bin. If this box is unchecked, deleted files will be permanently deleted (i.e. deleted without recourse) bypassing the Recycle Bin.

Use WORD as the default for FIND/CHANGE commands

The FIND and CHANGE commands accept an optional "search context" parameter of CHARS, WORD, PREFIX or SUFFIX. In ISPF, if none of these keywords are present, CHARS is assumed by default. In SPFLite, the default can be either CHARS or WORD. To use WORD as the default search context, enable this checkbox. It is not presently possible to set a default of PREFIX or SUFFIX, since these choices are not as useful.

See Finding and Changing Data for more information.

Only English letters A-Z and a-z are considered alphabetic

The WORD setting for a file's Profile allows you to customize what characters you wish to be considered as valid WORD characters. This check-box here can simplify the handling of ANSI standard international characters.

If this option is disabled (OFF), then when processing the WORD control string and A-Z is specified, all international uppercase characters will be automatically added; if a-z is specified, all lowercase international characters will be added. This is much simpler than having to individually type in all these characters, which are not defined in simple adjacent ANSI sequences.

If you don't use international characters in your data, but only English letters A-Z and a-z, you should enable this option. That will cause any international characters to be treated as "special" characters, rather than "alphabetic". It also means that FIND and CHANGE commands will find these characters with a picture code of P'$', but they will not find them with picture codes of P'@', P'<' or P'>'.

In addition, the "only English" option will restrict commands such as UC, LC, SC, TC and SORT to only consider English letters A-Z and a-z when changing the case of characters or performing sorting and comparison operations on your data.

This implementation is consistent, so that both Picture handling, and the handling of commands like UC and SORT, either will or will not be restricted to English-only characters, based on how you set this option.

You may wish to enable this option if the presence of international characters might represent corrupted data rather than valid non-English letters. You may also wish to do this if you are using a font in which positions typically occupied by international characters contain other, non-alphabetic graphics.

See further information on specifying the character values in "Working with Word and delimiter characters"

When you alter this check-box, it takes effect immediately.

Default RESET will Revert User Line Status

When the RESET command is issued without any specific operands, it resets a default set of 'normal' items. If this option is selected, then the status of all User lines will be reset as part of that default set, similarly to how all Excluded lines are reset by default. If this option is left unchecked, the status of any User lines is left unchanged.

Open Help screen in Full Screen mode

If checked, then when Help screen are displayed in response to a HELP command, they will be opened in Full Screen mode. If unchecked, they will open in whatever size & position you have previously used.

Only 1 SPFLite running

If this box is checked, multiple executions (separate instances) of SPFLite will be prevented. If you attempt to open a file in a second SPFLite, it will detect the existing one running and cause your file to be opened as a new tab within the existing SPFLite execution. Once that is done, the second SPFLite will go away (actually, you will never even see it). Even when this option is set, a new SPFLite instance can still be opened by issuing an OPEN primary command from the existing SPFLite.

Re-Open last file(s) at Start

If this box is checked, and if SPFLite is started without a filename as a command-line operand, it will automatically reopen the last set of files that were being edited or browsed when SPFLite was last exited.

The prior set of open files is only remembered if SPFLite is exited using the Title Bar X button, or an EXIT or =X command. If all file tabs are closed one at a time with an END command or a right mouse click, SPFLite will restart without opening any prior files. Files must be actively open at the time of exit to be reopened later.

Warn on modified View file

View allows you to modify the file as you like, but it prevents accidental saving of the modified data back to the file. However, sometimes it is easy to forget you are in View (because the two kinds of screens look so similar) and you might continue working, imagining that you were in Edit. If you then hit END, expecting the file to be auto-saved as Edit would do, you may be unpleasantly surprised to find all your changes are discarded. If this check-box is enabled, an END command issued for a modified View tab will trigger a prompt to remind you that your changes will be lost. To avoid that, you can choose to terminate the END processing and return to View, where you can use the CREATE or REPLACE commands to save your data.

In addition, when you are in View mode and have modified the file, the Word 'View' in the left-hand status bar box will be displayed as View to remind you of the modified state.

Cut should default to NEW

When selected, all CUT commands will be treated as if the NEW operand were coded. i.e. if the cut is directed to a private named clipboard, then SPFLite will check to see if it exists. If it does, you will be prompted for permission to overwrite the existing file. If this option is selected, you may also use the REPLACE operand to override NEW and save without further prompting.

Maintain screen position after Line Cmds

When selected, SPFLite will attempt to keep the screen position as it was at the time of the Attention (Enter or PFK). This effectively means

that screen (positioning) commands issued by Line Commands outside the currently visible window will be ignored. This not a 100% guarantee, depending on the various command combinations that are possible, but will usually prevent the screen from 'moving' away from it's last position.

Minimize SPFLite to the System Tray

If selected, when SPFLite is minimized, it will shrink to just an Icon in the System Tray (the area at the right end of the Windows Task Bar). It will be invisible in the normal Task Bar area showing active programs. Please ensure your Task Bar settings are altered to make SPFLite "Always Visible" in the System Tray area. Otherwise it could end up in the 'hidden' items and you will need to click on the ^ button to make it visible. If you use the Instances support, the ToolTip which appears when you hover over the Icon, will display the Instance Name if it applies to other than the DEFAULT session.

Display splash screen on startup

If selected, SPFLite will display an informational 'splash' screen at startup for a few seconds.

Warn on Open of Non-Text files

If selected, when a file is opened for Edit, SPFLite will check the filename to see if it is flagged as a Non-Text file. If so, it will prompt you for confirmation before continuing. Editing such files may cause corruption of the file so as to make it unusable.

Files are marked as non-text files using the EFT support. Review Extended File Types for details.

BACKUP Retention Criteria

If you use the Backup / Restore support built into SPFLite, this is where you specify the Retention Criteria which controls how long the Backup files are retained before they are considered 'obsolete' and can be deleted.

There are three values to be entered, a RETPD (Retention Period) value, a minimum Generations value and a maximum Generations value. These three values are all inter-related so before completing this section be sure you have read and understand how these values are used. It is critical you understand this or you could easily negate or cripple the whole Backup / Restore process. Review "Working with Backup and Restore"

Minimum Command length for Retrieve

SPFLite saves command line entries for subsequent retrieval via the RETRIEVE command. The minimum-length value specifies the minimum length of a command before it will be saved for retrieval. This prevents filling the retrieve stack with unimportant entries which are just simply easier to re-enter. If you want commands of any length to be saved, set the minimum length value to 1.

Note that retrievable commands are saved between SPFLite sessions. A maximum of 50 commands can be stored in the RETRIEVE stack.

Command Separator Character

Multiple commands may be entered in a single SPFLite command line. This option specifies the delimiter character to be used to separate each command. The default command separator is the ; semicolon character, the same as in ISPF.

You cannot use a blank as the separator, nor attempt to delete the separator to make it a zero-length string, nor can you attempt to paste a hex value of X'00' into this field. You must define some character as the command separator, even if you don't plan to enter multiple commands on the command line.

Note that SPFLite's command separator works somewhat differently than in IBM ISPF

IBM ISPF applies command separators unconditionally, regardless of what appears on the command line. So, if the separator is semicolon, and you had a quoted string with a semicolon in it, IBM ISPF will chop off the string right then and there, and then issue a command syntax error message. (A less complimentary way of saying this is, IBM applies its command separator blindly, and that's not always a good idea.)

SPFLite honors quoted string values first, and then looks for command separators. So, if you leave the separator as ; semicolon you can still use semicolon in quoted strings without running into problems.

Most users will probably find the SPFLite approach works better for them than how IBM ISPF does it.

If you find the default command separator semicolon is an issue for you, you can set the separator to some seldom-used character. You would do the same if you didn't really want to define a command separator at all, but have to pick something because the rule above. You can use the ANSI popup in the KEYMAP to select some rarely used character that is convenient for you.

As a suggestion, the broken vertical bar ¦ character is a perfectly good ANSI character (hex value A6) but is not a "standard ASCII" value (one that is less than hex 7F). You could map this character to (say) the Ctrl backslash key, and that would make a nice separator character that you're not likely to see or use in your own data. The mapping string for this would look like [¦] in KEYMAP. You can use the Show Character Map button to get the ANSI popup; just click on the ¦ character and then paste it into the mapping string (normally by using the Ctrl-V key, unless you have mapped the (Paste) function to something else). Be sure to add the [ and ] before and after the ¦ character, of course.

Bear in mind that the Options screens are Windows dialog GUI displays, and if you have mapped some special character using KEYMAP, you can't use it in a Windows dialog, but only within SPFLite itself. If you have a special keyboard layout that Windows knows about, either a foreign layout, or a custom one created by the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator or KbdEdit, you can directly use those keys anywhere, and do not need to map them in SPFLite unless you wish to override them for SPFLite specific functions. (An Internet search will find more information regarding the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator and KbdEdit.)

So, it you have some non-ASCII special character (higher than X'7F') you'd like to use, you can always enter your mapped key on an SPFLite command or data line, as described above. But, to actually set the Command Separator, you have to do it in a way that Windows understands. The easiest way to do this is to bring up the SPFLite ANSI display, and left-click on the character you want to use.

Then, in the Options GUI where you need to set this, go to the Command Separator Char field, delete the current contents, and press Ctrl-V to enter the special character. Note that when you are in a Windows dialog or GUI, Windows controls how the keyboard is interpreted, and so within such a dialog or GUI, Ctrl-V always means Paste, no matter what you mapped this key to in SPFLite.

Default # cols to use for Data Shifts (Min 1)

This setting specifies the default number of columns to be shifted when using one of the line shift commands { (( )), << >>, or [[ ]] } and no specific number is specified on the command itself. IBM ISPF does not allow this default to be set by the user, but enforces a fixed default of 2 columns. In SPFLite, you can make the default number of columns any positive value you wish.

Profile Override

It is possible to override this global default and use a value specific to each file Profile. This is done by appending a "P" (for Profile) to the numeric value. When this is done, the value used will be the XTABS (Import Tabs) value from the Profile in use. If the Profile has XTABS=0, then the numeric value from this global setting will be used.

Examples:

A value of 4 would mean - always use a value of 4.

A value of 4P would mean - use 4 if the Profile has XTABS = 0, othewise use the Profile XTABS value.

Number of Columns/Lines per Auto-Scroll

The value entered here will be used to control the number of lines (for Vertical scrolling), or characters (for horizontal scrolling) to be performed for each 'click' of the mouse wheel. If 0 (zero) is entered, then no action is taken when the Mouse Wheel is moved.

Note: The value set here is also used as the scroll amount by the keyboard primitives (ScrollLeft), (ScrollRight), (ScrollUp) and (ScrollDown). In case you wish to disable Mouse Wheel scrolling by setting this number to 0, the keyboard scrolling will be done with a default amount of one line or one column.

Notify tabs on external file change

SPFLite can be directed to inform you when a file you are working on in an Edit or Browse session has been modified by some process outside of SPFLite itself. You have control over what conditions under which you will receive a notification.

The permanent file notification level is defined here in the General tab of the Global Options dialog, and is either ALL, NONE or EDIT.

The NOTIFY command is used to set the temporary notification level for files opened in SPFLite that are modified by an external process. The setting you choose on NOTIFY only lasts until the next NOTIFY command, or until SPFLite is terminated.

See Handling External File Changes for more information.

Line Commands repeat limit

Occasionally, as you enter line commands, you may inadvertently end up with a line command entered which still has some remaining digits of the line number itself. This could result in a wildly incorrect 'repeat factor'. To prevent this, you may specify a number here which will 'cap' the repeat factor. Simply enter here the largest number you would probably ever enter as a repeat factor. Any command entered which exceeds this value will be rejected.

Check for SPFLite Update Interval

SPFLite can check periodically to see if a newer version has been made available on the SPFLite Web Site. This option allows you to choose one of three intervals:

Check Manually - SPFLite will do no automatic check. To do so you must manually click on the Check Now Button.

7 Days - SPFLite will check every 7 days.

30 Days - SPFLite will check every 30 days.

Check Now - Clicking this button will perform an immediate check. If your version is up to date, you will see:

If a Newer version exists, you will see:

If you choose, you may click on the website URL to go directly to the official download site.

Number of UNDO Levels

This setting controls whether SPFLite will support the UNDO command, and if enabled, the number of rollback levels of UNDO that are supported. If non-zero, it specifies how many levels of UNDO are supported. i.e. How far back you can go.

When the value is zero, UNDO is effectively OFF.

Enter The Invalid characters for P'.' Picture Literals

The characters in this text box define what characters are considered "invalid" by the Picture character '.' (dot) when performing Picture searches.

Note that the dot Picture is used to identify characters which are considered "non-normal" characters. Normally this means characters which are not normally displayable on the screen, but you can use it to identify whatever characters you consider "non-normal", even if they are displayable.

That is, a Find Picture of '.' dot will find characters that are in the list.

The default list is based on the basic ASCII character set, you can customize it any way you see fit. If you erase the field, the default will be set.

In terms of what you might do with a Find Picture of P'.' in SPFLite, it's more likely that what you are looking for is, not "non-displayable" characters, but "unusual" ones. What makes a character "unusual" ? That's for you to decide, which is why you can configure it here. Just remember that the "non-displayable" or "unusual" characters are the ones in this list.

See further information on specifying the character values in "Working with Word and delimiter characters"

Display Char. for un-mapped characters in the current Screen Font

When SPFLite displays characters on the screen, and a character is encountered which is NOT defined in the current screen font, SPFLIte will use the character you specify here in place of it. The original IBM ISPF used a Period ( . ) and that is the default for this value. Feel free to make it any other infrequently used character of your choice. You may specify any character (even a blank). If you enter a "N" or "n" it is taken as a request to do NO translation of invalid characters (not recommended).

Cancel and Done Buttons

One of the CANCEL or DONE buttons at the bottom of the dialog box should be selected when you have completed your changes. The Cancel button will discard all changes you have made and exit the Options process. The Done button will save your changes and return to the Editor.

Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: iPhone web sites made easy