Partition options for BMS SEND commands

As noted earlier, when you write to a partitioned screen, you write to only one partition, and the effects of your command are limited to that partition. ERASE and ERASEAUP clear only within the partition, and FREEKB unlocks the keyboard only when the partition becomes active.

You can specify the partition to which you are sending with either the PARTN option in your map definition or with the OUTPARTN option on your SEND MAP. OUTPARTN overrides PARTN. If you don't specify either, BMS chooses the first partition in the set.

The use of partitions affects the suffixing of map set names that we described in Device-dependent maps. The map set suffix is taken from the MAPSFX value for the partition instead of being determined as described in that section.

Determining the active partition

When you send to a partition, you can move the cursor to that partition or another one. A value of ACTIVATE in the PARTN option of the map definition puts the cursor in the partition to which you are writing. If you specify ACTPARTN on your BMS SEND command, you can name any partition (not necessarily the one to which you are writing), and you override the ACTIVATE specification. Both ACTIVATE and ACTPARTN unlock the keyboard for the active partition, as well as placing the cursor there. If neither is present, the cursor does not move and the keyboard is not unlocked.

Although you can make a partition active by placing the cursor there when you send, you do not have the last word on this subject, because the operator can use the jump key on the terminal to move the cursor to another partition. This can complicate receiving data back from the terminal, but BMS provides help, as we are about to explain.

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