Creating a new descriptor

Looking again at the Descriptor listbox in Figure 1 , you should notice that only the first entry is an actual descriptor. The remaining selections, which are all enclosed in angle brackets and all begin with the word new, are for creating new descriptors. Here is the list from Figure 1:

Figure 1. Contents of the Descriptor listbox with one actual descriptor

Fields Counts and OIA
<new string descriptor>
<new cursor descriptor>
<new attribute descriptor>
<new condition descriptor>
<new variable update>

For example, if you clicked <new string descriptor>, the Macro object would create a new String descriptor and place it at the start of the list. The lower area of the Description tab would allow you to fill out the various fields that belong to a String descriptor (such as a row and column location and a character string). The Descriptor listbox would then look like this:

Figure 2. Contents of the Descriptor listbox with two actual descriptors

String descriptor(3, 29)
Fields Counts and OIA
<new string descriptor>
<new cursor descriptor>
<new attribute descriptor>
<new condition descriptor>
<new variable update>

In the figure above, the currently selected descriptor is now the String descriptor at the top of the list (the 3,29 stands for row 3, column 29). The Field Counts and OIA descriptor is now second on the list.

For information on how the macro runtime handles multiple descriptors, as in the figure above, see Evaluation of descriptors.