Xerox Printer User Manual

Page of 181
USING HFDL COMMANDS
Sample strings you can use are as follows:
’ .’
produces  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
’*’
produces *****************************
’–.’
produces –.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.
’xo’ produces xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
LET command
Use the LET command to define variable names.  You can specify
all x and y coordinates with either literal values or variable names.
If you use variable names, you must first define them with the
LET command.  The LET command allows an 
identifier (variable)
to equal an 
n value.  Variable names must begin with an
alphabetic character and may be up to 16 characters in length.
You can define up to 50 variables for each form (two to ten
variables for each form is typical).  You can define the maximum
number of variables in one LET statement or in individual
statements.  You can place LET statements anywhere in the form
following the FORM statement, and you can redefine variables
any number of times.
You can only set variables to a specific numeric amount.  You
cannot specify units in the LET statement.  However, you can
specify units (if needed) when the variable is used as a
coordinate.  For example, if variable Y1 is set to 3 in a LET
statement and a line is drawn at Y1 inches, it is drawn at 3
inches.  If the grid units are dots and no units are specified, then
the line Y1 is drawn at 3 dots.
Figure 3–24 shows the LET command syntax flow.
Figure 3–24.
LET command syntax
;
 n
 
 LET
=
identifier
  
,
identifier
Parameters
identifier = identifier specifies the variable name and value you
select for the LET command.  The first 
identifier specifies the
variable and the second 
identifier specifies the variable value n.
Default
None.
Examples
Long form:
LET X1 = 5.5, X2 = 4.0, Y1 = 3.0;
There is no short form.
Relative coordinate
You can specify all coordinates as literal values or variables.  You
must first define variables in the LET statement.  Refer to the “LET
command” section for additional information.  If you use
variables outside of the LET command, they are called relative
coordinates.  These coordinates can also have a positive or a
negative value.  This allows you to place text items relative to
one another.  If you want to shift the whole block of text up or
HOST FORMS DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE 3.2 FOR IBM MVS CREATING FORMS
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