QUIT_MODE

This variable has meaning only on graphical systems such as Windows. It gives you control over the Close action that appears on the System menu in a graphical environment. You may use the QUIT_MODE variable with only the main application window. All other windows return the CMD-CLOSE event when they are closed.

Many COBOL programs should not be shut down in an uncontrolled manner. This is especially true of any application that updates several files in a row. If the program is halted after updating the first file, but before updating the last, the files are left in an inconsistent state. For this reason, ACUCOBOL-GT allows you to control the Close action.

To do this, you set QUIT_MODE to a non-zero value. The value that you specify affects the Close action as follows:

-2
Disable Close: disables the Close action entirely. The Close menu item will appear gray on the System menu, and the user will not be able to select it.
-1
Close only on input: the runtime disables the Close action except when it is waiting for user input. This prevents the user from stopping the runtime in the middle of a series of file operations, but still allows the user to quit the application any time that the application is waiting for input.
0
Always Close: the runtime halts the program whenever Close is selected from the system menu.
>0
Program controlled Close: when a positive value is used, the Close item becomes a standard menu item with an ID equal to the value of QUIT_MODE. You may then handle the Close item just like any other menu item.

For example, if you set QUIT_MODE to "100", then your program will receive exception value 100 when the user selects the Close item. If you wanted to call a special shutdown program when the user selected Close, you could assign the Close action to a hot-key program:

     MENU_ITEM  Hot_Key ="shutdown"  100

In this example, the "shutdown" program might pop up a small window to confirm that the user wanted to exit and, if so, do a STOP RUN.

If you start your program in "safe" mode with the "-s" runtime option, then QUIT_MODE will be initialized to "-2" instead of "0". This prevents the user from using the Close menu item. A QUIT_MODE entry in the configuration file takes precedence over the default handling of "-s".

If a user attempts to end the Windows session when it is not allowed, a pop-up message box asks the user to terminate the application first. You can customize the message that appears in the box by setting the TEXT configuration variable, message number 18.

Note that the QUIT_MODE setting affects only the main application window. All other windows always return the event CMD-CLOSE when the window is closed.

-2	Disable Close: disables the Close action entirely. The Close menu item will appear gray on the System menu, and the user will not be able to select it.
-1	Close only on input: the runtime disables the Close action except when it is waiting for user input. This prevents the user from stopping the runtime in the middle of a series of file operations, but still allows the user to quit the application any time that the application is waiting for input.
0	Always Close: the runtime halts the program whenever Close is selected from the system menu.
>0	Program controlled Close: when a positive value is used, the Close item becomes a standard menu item with an ID equal to the value of QUIT_MODE. You may then handle the Close item just like any other menu item.