The SDF (System Dialog Facility) command processor enables the user to enter statements under menu guidance. The level of guidance can be defined by means of the command operand GUIDANCE or the standard statement MODIFY-SDF-OPTIONS.
The level of guidance is selected by specifying GUIDANCE =*MINIMUM, *MEDIUM or *MAXIMUM; the difference between the three levels is in the scope of the additional help texts supplied to the user. Irrespective of the guidance level set, the user can request additional explanations by entering “?” instead of an operand value.
Guided dialog is controlled via menus listing the statements and operands that may be specified. The list indicates the default values of the operands. The absence of a default value means that specification of an operand value is mandatory.
Parentheses “()” following an operand value indicate that the value introduces a structure, for which a submenu can be requested (by specifying the operand value).
The user can temporarily switch over to guided dialog at any time, even when in unguided dialog (GUIDANCE = *NO or *EXPERT). This is done by entering “?” instead of or following a statement. Switchover to a menu can also be requested by entering “?” after an operand that is followed by a comma.
Dialog entry of commands and statements is described in detail in the “SDF Dialog Interface” [5] and “Commands” [8] manuals.