Moving screen array rows with SCROLL

IBM® Informix® 4GL programs can use the SCROLL instruction to move screen array rows up and down, by preserving the TTY attributes.

Data records can be displayed in a screen array with a DISPLAY array[array-index].* TO screen-array[screen-line] instruction, optionally with the ATTRIBUTES() clause to use some TTY attributes like colors, reverse and bold effects. When moving screen array rows with the SCROLL instruction, I4GL actually uses the terminal scrolling capabilities to preserve the TTY attributes in each row. This applies only to the rows visible on the screen.

In order to display application screens on different types of front-ends, Genero BDL handles user interface elements in a more abstract way. A good replacement for DISPLAY ... TO ... ATTRIBUTES() and SCROLL instruction is to use a regular DISPLAY ARRAY or INPUT ARRAY dialog, with the DIALOG.setArrayAttributes() method, to define decoration attributes for each cell.