Re: fleeting error msgs

[TBaehr@xxxxxxxx]

In a message dated 96-11-14 Harry B writes:

≪ Is there any other way to get an error message to not flash by at
lightspeed?≫

Yup, for Xy4 at least. The default is WA, and the number after it is in
1/18ths of a second. So, to get a message to stick around for 2 seconds, you
would enter:

d wa=36

The unfortunate aspect of this is that even benign progress prompts stick
around. For menu/dialog users and for people who write XPL, this can be
quite irksome. If you find that the wait is slowing down a process, you can
save the default WA to a save/get, set WA to 0 or some small number, and
restore it at the end from the save/get. Or, as we often do in programs, set
ES to 1 temporarily -- but sometimes you do want to see the message, however
briefly. I have my WA setting permanently at 12.

If you miss an error message, you can often retrieve it after the fact by
using

va/nv $er

to get the last error number and then

va/nv \xxx (xxx is the $er number you just got)

to display (again, briefly depending on the WA setting) the message.

va/nv @xxxxxxxx, by the way, will display the contents of save/get xxx -- internal
or user.

As far as I know, there's no equivalent in III+.

And speaking of III+, the stuff about SAVE %x (to save a save/get to a file)
works in III+, but you can't name the output file -- it always saves to
x.sav. You could include a rename line in your XPL, of course, but you'd
have to check for existence of the destination filename. SAVE % in Xy4
overwrites the destination file without prompting or failing. (And SAVE % in
III+ and Xy4 [if no file is named] overwrites the x.sav file.) I don't
remember if SAVE% works with user save/gets in III+ (it does in Xy4).

Tim Baehr
TBaehr@xxxxxxxx