Macro Manager

The Macro Manager lists the macros defined for the active kernel and lets you control, for each one, whether it is executed and whether it is traced while you debug. It also lets you enable or disable whole families of macros at once and filter which macros are listed.

Enabling or disabling macro execution may change the result produced by the post-processor. Changing the tracing state never affects the result — it only controls whether you can step through the macro in the Macro trace window. Hiding or showing macros with the filters does not affect the result either.

Changes made in the Macro Manager apply to the current session only. They are kept across a Run » Restart, but are reset by File » New Job, File » Load Job and File » Exit.

The macro list

Each macro is shown on one row with three columns:

  • Execute — a check box that enables or disables execution of the macro. When cleared, the macro is skipped during processing.

  • Trace — a check box that enables or disables tracing of the macro. When tracing is disabled you cannot Step In to the macro to examine how it executes; its execution flow is unchanged.

  • Macro — the macro name.

Double-click a macro row to open that macro's source in the Source window. Click a column header to sort the list by that column; the Execute and Trace columns sort by check state, the Macro column sorts by name. Clicking the same header again reverses the order.

Check-box changes are sent to the kernel only while processing is idle.

Enable / Disable button

Click the Enable / Disable button (or its drop-down arrow) to open a menu that acts on groups of macros at once:

  • Toggle All Macro Execution — enables or disables execution of every listed macro. When all macros are disabled, no macros are used during processing.

  • Toggle All Macro Tracing — enables or disables tracing of every listed macro.

  • Per-type toggles — below the two "all" items, the menu lists the macro types available for the current mode. Selecting one enables or disables every macro of that type, and a check mark shows whether that type is currently enabled. Each entry corresponds to the matching macro control variable, so toggling it is equivalent to setting that variable from within a macro:

    In post-processor mode the types are $BREAKMAC, $CYCMAC, $DIAGMAC, $MTNMAC, $OEMAC, $REGMAC, $TAPMAC, $TCMAC and $LCSMAC.

    In Control Emulator mode the types are the block, sub-program and pre-processor startup/shutdown/identification macros ($CEBKST, $CEBKSH, $CESBST, $CESBSH, $CEPPST, $CEPPSH, $CEPPID) together with $CYCMAC, $DIAGMAC, $MTNMAC and $TCMAC.

Show / Hide button

Filters help reduce the number of macros listed when a session contains a large number of active macros. Click the Show / Hide button (or its drop-down arrow) to open a menu of macro categories; each entry is a check mark you can toggle to show or hide that category. The categories offered depend on the kernel and on what is defined:

  • Post-processor / Control Emulator macros — the macros belonging to the current post-processor or emulator.

  • All component macros — composite component macros that do not belong to the currently active component.

  • Before / After macros — external before/after macros (post-processor mode only).

  • Virtual Machine macros — macros associated with the machine model.

Hiding or showing macros only changes the list; it does not affect processing.