This option affects how alphanumeric fields with a default value are displayed prior to entry. It works just like the EDITED-UPDATES option (described below) except that it applies to alphanumeric fields instead of numeric edited fields. The only acceptable value is Unchanged.
Placing Auto-Prompt immediately after this option, using a comma as a separator, allows the user to decide whether to change or replace the default value. When Auto-Prompt is specified, the default value will be displayed, and then the program will wait for the user to enter a character. If the character entered is a data character, ACUCOBOL-GT will fill the field with prompt characters (erasing what was there) and then accept data as if this were a new field. If the character entered is an editing character (such as an arrow key), then ACUCOBOL-GT allows the user to edit the data normally. Sample syntax is shown here:
SCREEN ALPHA-UPDATES=Unchanged, Auto-Prompt
This option can also be specified as SCRN_ALPHA_UPDATES. The Auto-prompt value can be specified with SCRN_ALPHA_AUTO_PROMPT. For example, to set the above syntax using these variables, you would enter:
SCRN_ALPHA_UPDATES Unchanged SCRN_ALPHA_AUTO_PROMPT on