Color configuration is an entirely optional step, and may be skipped without penalty.
Although application programs have the ultimate control over the colors that appear on the screen, for applications that do not assume such control, it is possible to customize a number of aspects of the color display by configuration a color initialization file.
When A-Shell launches, it checks if the file DSK0:INI.CLR[7,0] exists, and if so, processes it. If you update the file, or wish to experiment with different color configurations, you can force a new color initialization file to be processed using the SET.LIT command (SET TERM COLORINI <color init file>).
A typical INI.CLR file is shown below. Note that lines that start with semicolons are ignored (comments). The numbers correspond to the color numbers which may be used in the SET TERM FCOLOR # and SET TERM BCOLOR # commands (or in the TAB(-2,x) and TAB(-3,x) BASIC print statements). Note the embedded comment lines that explain the color numbers and the various statement parameters. Each of the statements is further described in the following section.
; Color Definition File
; Color legend: 0=blk, 1=wht, 2=blu, 3=mag, 4=red
; 5=yel, 6=grn, 7=cyn
; VUECLR=override?,edit fg,edit bg, command fg,
; command bg, help fg, help bg,
; status/info fg,bg
VUECLR=Y,6,0, 5,0, 7,0, 1,0
; EZCLR=override?,text fg,bg, border fg,bg
; cmd fg,bg, sts fg,bg, help fg,bg,
; highlight fg,bg, menu fg,bg, brief menu fg,bg
EZCLR=Y, 6,0, 6,0, 5,0, 0,9, 1,3, 3,6, 5,0, 7,0
; INFCLR=override?,display fg,bg, edit fg,bg
; negative fg,bg, update fg,bg,
; message fg,bg, original msg line fg,bg, forms fg,bg
INFCLR=Y, 1,0, 5,0, 4,0, 7,0, 5,0, 6,0, 9,0
; MMOCLR=Y,border fg,bg, text fg,bg, arrows fg,bg, prompt fg,bg,
; status line fg,bg, protected fg,bg
MMOCLR=Y, 6,0, 7,0, 5,0, 5,0, 5,0, 10,0
; SCNCLR=override?,screen text (fg), screen background
; The following sets up magenta on black
SCNCLR=Y,3,0
; SCNSIZ=rows,cols
SCNSIZ=18,60
Most of the lines begin with an “Override?” option. When set to Y, the color scheme defined on that line will override the default color scheme normally used for that function, or the one which a program has specifically asked to use. Setting it to N is nearly the same as commenting out the line entirely, except for situations where no other color scheme had been set up or specified for that function.
You may set any color number to –1 to indicate that it should use the color which happens to be current at the time the function begins. (Setting all of the numbers to –1 will effectively defeat any color changes within the function.) Also note that making the foreground and background numbers in any pair the same effectively makes that text impossible to see. This is generally a very bad idea, except in some isolated cases. For example, some people don’t like the status line information displayed by EZTYP; you can eliminate it by setting the status line pair of the EZCLR line to 0,0 (black on black)
The VUECLR line allows you to set up the color scheme used by VUE. The first pair of numbers defines the foreground and background colors used for the editing display. The second set defines the colors used in command mode. The third set defines the colors used with for HELP displays. And the fourth pair defines the colors used for status and other information displays. In the example above, this would be green on black for the display mode, yellow on black for the command mode, cyan on black for the help displays, and white on black for the status displays.
The EZCLR line defines the color scheme used by EZSPL (and EZTYP/EZVUE). The concept is the same as that for VUECLR except the color pairs refer to the EZTYP display mode (“text”), graphic line drawing characters used for borders, command mode, status line, help (pop up) display, highlighted search strings, printer selection menu mode, and the brief version of the printer selection prompt/menu.
The INFCLR line defines the color scheme used with INFLD. The pairs refer to display of data (without editing), editing mode, negative numbers (red), the redisplay of a field after it has been edited, the message line (bottom line of screen), the original color of the message line (so it can be returned to its original state), and the color used for forms characters. Note that applications have the option of specifying all of these colors explicitly for each field edited or displayed. If you set the “override” field to Y, this will override any colors specified by the application. However, if the application does not specify colors, then it is not necessary to set override to Y. (In other words, if you set the override option to N, it will only override the color scheme on fields for which the application did not establish its own color scheme.)
The MMOCLR line defines the color scheme used with INMEMO. Here the pairs refer to the color used to draw the border around the memo, the color of the text within the memo, the color of the navigation arrows (which display on the border), the color of the prompts (top and bottom titles), the color of any status messages, and the color of protected text. Note that these colors also apply to PCKLST.SBR (and any other utility which internally uses INMEMO.) The comments about the override field given above for INFCLR apply here as well.
The SCNCLR line defines the initial color scheme to be used when A-Shell launches. The default is 6,0 (green on black).
The SCNSIZ line defines the initial number of rows and columns. The default is 24 by 80. Under Windows, rows may range from 1 to 50, and columns may range from 1 to 160. Under UNIX, it depends on the capability of your terminal emulator. In most cases, you will be limited to 24 by 80 or 24 by 132. In the case of ZTERM (Build 144 or higher), the number of rows may vary from 1 to 50.