Multiple choice technology mainframe

How do we issue an Primary Command?

  1. with = symbol before Line command

  2. with :(colon) symbol before Line command

  3. with & symbol before Line command

  4. None of the above

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
AI explanation

Correct — in ISPF, prefixing an entry in the line-command field with a colon (:) tells ISPF to treat what follows as a primary command rather than a line command, letting you issue primary commands (like FIND, CHANGE, SORT) from anywhere on the panel without moving your cursor up to the 'Command ===>' field. This is a documented ISPF Edit/Browse convenience. The '=' symbol has a different, specific meaning in ISPF — entered alone on the primary command line, it repeats the last primary command issued — but that's not the general mechanism for issuing an arbitrary primary command via the line-command area. '&' has no such role in ISPF, so it and 'none of the above' are both wrong.