Interface Command Format

The IMS Interface › Interface Commands › Interface Command Format

Interface Command Format

The interface command language is a free-format command and parameter input language somewhat similar in structure to the IBM assembler macro statement coding format. To code a Interface command use the following fields:

Position	Field Name	Notes
1	Label	1 to 8 character label.
2-18	Command	The command must start and end between positions 2 and 18.
10-71	Parameters	Parameters (if present) must start and end in these positions.
72	Blank	Not used
73-80	Blank	Used for card sequence numbers as needed.

Commands include: COMPRESS, DEFAULT, FFGRAPH, KEYWORD and TRANSLATE.

Comments can be given with an asterisk (*) in position one. Labels must begin in position one and can be specified alone. Continuation is indicated by a comma as the last character in the parameters field followed by a space as a delimiter. Continuations resume after position ten of the next line. If only the command is entered, defaults are used for the operands. The commands are read by the interface through ddname CAIJRCD.

When using the interface command language, the following rules must be followed:

The first four characters of a parameter can be used to identify the parameter.
If more than one value is entered for a parameter, use parentheses to enclose the values and commas to separate the values. A value list can continue to the next line.
When entering text use single quotes to enclose the string if blanks are embedded in the text. Text cannot be continued on the next card.