When you select the Dialog Test option from the ISPF Primary Option Menu, you are given a new function pool, a new shared pool, and the profile pool for the application ID under which you entered Dialog Test. When you select Dialog Test from the ISPF Primary Option Menu, you are given a new function pool, a new shared pool, and the ISPPROF profile pool. These pools are used if you set a variable, display a panel, call an ISPF service, and so forth. When you call a new dialog, Dialog Test uses the SELECT service, and follows the rules for the creation of new variable pools. For example, if you call a new dialog using the NEWPOOL option, Dialog Test creates new shared and function variable pools for you. The profile variable pool, ISRPROF or ISPPROF, remains as it was.

If you set a dialog variable in the shared pool from a dialog running under Dialog Test and then call the dialog again from the Command line, you cannot retrieve the value of that variable.

Dialog variables should be initialized and set in the context of the dialog's processing. A dialog's function variable pools are created when it is called; that is, when the SELECT is done. Therefore, to set function variables in newly created pools, you must define a breakpoint early in your dialog's processing, at a point before the function is called.

For example, if you call a dialog with the NEWPOOL parameter, you must define a breakpoint in the dialog before the first function is called to access that dialog's function and shared variable pools. You can change the dialog's profile variable pool before calling the dialog, since a new profile variable pool is not created.