Rational Developer for System z
Enterprise PL/I for z/OS, Version 3.8, Programming Guide

Automatic prompting

When the program requires input from a file that is associated with a terminal, it issues a prompt. This takes the form of printing a colon on the next line and then skipping to column 1 on the line following the colon. This gives you a full line to enter your input, as follows:

:
(space for entry of your data)

This type of prompt is referred to as a primary prompt.

Overriding automatic prompting

You can override the primary prompt by making a colon the last item in the request for the data. You cannot override the secondary prompt. For example, the two PL/I statements:

PUT SKIP EDIT ('ENTER TIME OF PERIHELION') (A);
GET EDIT (PERITIME) (A(10));

result in the terminal displaying:

ENTER TIME OF PERIHELION
:         (automatic prompt)
(space for entry of data)

However, if the first statement has a colon at the end of the output, as follows:

PUT EDIT ('ENTER TIME OF PERIHELION:') (A);

the sequence is:

ENTER TIME OF PERIHELION: (space for entry of data)
Note:
The override remains in force for only one prompt. You will be automatically prompted for the next item unless the automatic prompt is again overridden.

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