PEON

Syntax

PEON [{ #ch | chan_ID | job_name$ }]

Location

PEX

PEX is similar to the PIE system extension (see PIE_ON for more details), in that it allows buried programs to access the screen in the background. However, PEX cannot be used with PIE and is completely independent. PEX should be loaded after the Pointer Environment (notably the PTR_GEN file), and after any other code which redefines the window handling of the QL (for example Lightning or Speedscreen). It must however be loaded before the History device (except on SMSQ/E which has a built in History device).

People who use PEX or PIE may like to also use another utility PICE which updates the QL screen at pre-defined time intervals so that any part of a window which is not buried will actually appear on screen (whether or not part of that window is buried). If you wish to use PICE, it is recommended to set the PICE job to a priority of 1 so as not to slow the system down too much.

The PEON command allows you to select which windows and Jobs should allow background screen access - this is important since the more programs which continue to run in the background, the slower your QL will appear!! If no parameter is specified, then background screen access is enabled for all Jobs.

You can however pass any number of parameters, which can be:

  1. A SuperBASIC channel number for the current program;

  2. A QDOS channel number (see CHANNELS) in which case PEX will only affect that specific channel;

  3. The name of a Job (passed as a string - use a null string (“”) for SuperBASIC). PEX will affect all windows used by that specified Job.

NOTE 1

PEX will not work on pre-JS ROMs. On JS and MG ROMs, its functionality is reduced in that it can only be used to allow a few machine code calls which do not access the screen to operate notwithstanding that the Pointer Environment would normally stop them from working from within a buried program. It is equivalent to:

FOR i=0 TO 127: x=IS_PTRAP(i,3)

NOTE 2

Some toolkits report errors when used alongside PEX and some Qliberated programs refuse to work.

CROSS-REFERENCE

See PEOFF, PIE_ON, PXON, PEX_INI and IS_PEON for more details. IS_PTRAP allows you to enable PEX for specific machine code routines.