You are here: Home > Knowledge Refreshers

KR edition 173 to 174

KR-173 : RETrieve Panel - idea contributed by Maheswari & Santanu 

Hi everyone,

A TSO tip...

To repeat the last command we entered use the PF12 key (or shift+PF12). If we press this repeatedly we can cycle through the last set of commands we've entered. 

Ever wondered where this list of commands can be seen?

  • ISPF stores the commands we enter on the command line in a stack. 

  • We can view the last 25 commands entered on the command line using the RETP command. 

  • Just type RETP on the command line and press enter.

  • A RETRIEVE PANEL (RETP) popup box will be shown where we can view the commands we've last entered. 

  • From this list we can also select one from the menu to execute now. 

  • We also have the RETF command which can be used to retrieve commands from the command stack moving from the oldest command towards the most recent commands. 

Many times we accidentaly press PF2 and to our annoyment find that the screen is broken up; then we go right up to the top of the screen and press PF2 again to get things back to normal; did you know why it happens? More on that in the next edition....

KR-174 : SPLIT Screen command

We'll take a look at the ispf SPLIT screen command in this editon...

  • When we press PF2 the screen actually splits in two! 

  • F2 is usually the shortcut key for the SPLIT command.

  • We can also type SPLIT on the command line also to split the screen in 2. 

  • We can have a maximum of only 1 split in a session. 

  • SPLIT command splits the screen horizontally; the SPLITV command splits vertically but is not available on all terminals. 

  • When the split command is issued, a dotted line (splitting line) appears on the screen. By positioning the cursor on a different line and pressing F2 again we can change the position on the splitting line (by default the line appears towards the top of the screen). 

  • Try it and see; you can work on two screens within one window using this command. 

  • To close the split, we either need to come out of one split screen or place the cursor right at the topmost line of the screen and press F2.

Go back to the main contents page