Understanding predefined actions

The runtime system predefines some action names for common operations of interactive instructions. These actions are called predefined actions, and get a default handler implemented in the dialog internals. For example, the accept action is a predefined action that validates the current dialog.

There are three types of predefined actions:

• Automatic actions: actions that are automatically created and handled by the program dialog, like accept, cancel, insert.
• Special actions: actions with a special usage, that can be invoked asynchronously or automatically by the front-end, like interrupt.
• Local actions: actions that are handled automatically the front end without program interaction, such as editcopy.

Note also that dialogs can handle ON IDLE events, but such timeout events are not considered as actions, and do not need any decoration.

Default decoration attributes and keyboard shortcuts are defined in the FGLDIR/lib/default.4ad global action defaults file for predefined actions.