Named keys and alternative keystroke sequences

Named keys are the keys on terminal keyboards that do something other than print an alphanumeric or special character. Named keys include <ENTER>, <TAB>, <<Del>>, the function keys <F1> through <F8>, and although not strictly named, the arrow keys <>, <>, <>, and <>. Since many terminal keyboards will not have a complete set of named keys, FMLI predefines alternative keystroke sequences whose use is equivalent to named keys. The alternative keystroke sequence for down-arrow <>, for example, is <CTRL-d>. That means the user must hold down <CTRL> while pressing <d>.

Some of the named keys are reserved for navigation and/or editing during an FMLI session. Navigation keys are named keys that, when pressed, cause the cursor to move. The default action assigned to a navigation key changes depending on whether you are in a menu, form, or text frame. For example, the named key <BEG> or the alternative keystroke sequence <CTRL-b> work as follows in the three types of frames:

menu

moves the cursor to the first item in the menu, whether it is currently visible or not

form

moves the cursor to the first field of the current page of the form

text

causes the first frameful of text to be displayed

The default action assigned to <BEG> in these three cases has a common element--moving to the beginning--but the meaning varies according to what kinds of things users need to do in each type of frame. A complete table of named keys recognized by FMLI (using terminfo) is provided in ``Keyboard and mouse support'', and summarizes the action that will occur when these keys or their alternative keystroke sequences are pressed in menus, forms, and text frames.