Initializing and Displaying the Data Form

During the initialization and display stage, the following occur:

• The form window is displayed on the screen.
  
  
• The form items (data fields, memo fields, and scrollable regions) are displayed. The protected characters in the picture strings for any fields, if any, are written. The values of the data variables associated with the data fields on the form are converted to strings and are displayed in the fields.
  
  
• The background boxes, lines, and text (including field prompts) are written in the window.
  
  
• The item on which processing is to start is set to the active field attribute. This allows the user to know what field is currently being processed. By default, the active field attribute is LFLDACT, which is black on cyan in color modes and reverse in monochrome modes.
  
  
• All other fields are set to the inactive field attribute or the skip field attribute. By default, the default for the inactive attribute is LFLDINACT, which appears as cyan on blue on color monitors and high intensity on monochrome monitors; the skip attribute is LFLDSKIP, which appears as black on white on color monitors and normal on monochrome monitors.
  
  
• The physical cursor is placed in the active field.
  
  
• The activate window function is called, if you installed one.
  
  
• The begin-form function is called, if you installed one.
  
  
• The begin-field function for the first field is called, if you installed one.
  
  
• If the form is virtual and the first field is not visible, it is scrolled into view.
  
  
• If you installed a scrolling function for a virtual form, and the form scrolls to make the first field visible, your scrolling function is called.

The form is now ready for entry of data.