In the same way as standard PFKeys give an application a consistent look and feel, a standard set of commands increases the user's sense of comfort.  Also, commands can include parameters.

For example in the sample employee system delivered by CA, to display or update an employee from the menu, you choose the option and the employee on the menu screen, which saves both the programmer and the user from dealing with the extra cycle of typing the employee number into the empty display/update screen.  This works fine when you hand-code your menus, but menu screens are very similar, and items should not appear on them which this user is not allowed to enter.  Most big applications come around to the idea of a menu generator, a single program which leads a user through his personal 'tree' of choices, just like ISPF.  A menu generator can still pass parameters to the 'leaf' programs, but it must be done carefully and in a standard way, which basically means a command line like ISPF's.

Another feature often called a command line is used when telephone operators are taking rapid structured notes.  Experienced operators cannot take the time to tab around the screen to find the right place for each fragment of information as it comes in at random from the customer, but novices need a structured screen, and this is also the best way of highlighting missing required information.  Having what would more accurately be called one or more data lines in which the experienced user can type structured information which is then distributed into the structured part of the screen, meets everyone's needs.

CASE Integrators has built these and other command line processors into Telon in such a way as to not require any specialized application coding to achieve these effects.

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