Defining PFKs using PFK tables

You define a console’s PFKs by activating a PFK table — a table that your installation has defined. The PFK table resides, optionally with other PFK tables, in a PFKTABxx parmlib member. The entries in this table:

Assign one or more commands to a PFK
The text of one or more commands are to be associated with a PFK. Later, when you press this PFK, the commands are entered into the system.
Assign one or more other PFKs to a PFK
The commands associated with other PFKs are to be associated with one PFK.

Entries in the PFK table also determine whether conversational or nonconversational mode is to be in effect for a command defined to a PFK. In nonconversational mode, the commands associated with a key are entered immediately when you press the key. In conversational mode, pressing a PFK causes the command to appear in the entry area, but no enter action takes place. You can change, enter, or cancel the command according to your requirements.

In conversational mode, the cursor normally appears under the third non-blank character when the command is in the entry area. If you want the cursor to appear in a different location, when you define the command, type an underscore before the character under which the cursor is to appear. The system deletes the space occupied by the underscore in the actual command. For example, if you add the following entry to a PFK table:

PFK(5) CMD('D U,L=_XXX') CON(Y)

pressing PFK 5 causes the following to appear in the entry area:

D U,L=XXX

If you want an underscore to appear in the command, code two consecutive underscores. The system will treat them as a single underscore, and will not use them for cursor placement. Example:

If the PRKTAB table contains:

        PFK(17) CMD('E _XXXXXXXX,SRVCLASS=BAT__HI'),CON(Y)

when you press PFK17, the entry area will contain:

        E XXXXXXXX,SRVCLASS=BAT_HI

with the cursor under the first X.

Selector pens also use the definitions in PFK tables.

You can use some MVS™ commands to display information about the PFKs at your console, or to change the PFKs that are available for your consoles. The following commands relate to the previous example:

Display the PFK definitions in the PFK table named MVSCMDS.
DISPLAY PFK,TABLE=MVSCMDS
List the names of all PFK tables in the active PFKTABxx member.
DISPLAY PFK,TABLE
Assign the commands in the PFK table named JES2CMDS to the PFKs on your console.
CONTROL N,PFK=JES2CMDS
Activate another PFKTABxx member, in this case PFKTAB02.
SET PFK=02

This command assumes that you have a PFK table in PFKTAB02 and that you want to replace MVSCMDS with another PFK table. (Other consoles might be using tables in the former PFKTABxx member. PFK definitions for these consoles are not affected by the action of this SET command.)