Patent ID: 8185831

Claim:
A method for creating a macro statement to create a display screen on a mainframe database system, said method comprising: in a mainframe computer: reading an image screen datafile including a plurality of control cards, wherein the plurality of control cards comprises one or more optional control cards selected from a group of optional control cards consisting of an EQU STATEMENT used to define customized attributes for letters A to Z, an ATTR STATEMENT used to modify field attributes, an SCS1 STATEMENT used to call for output to a printer and a PFK STATEMENT used to provide for application program use of PF keys, and wherein the plurality of control cards further comprises three or more required control cards selected from a group of required control cards consisting of a START control card to establish a format name and a DIF/DOF name, an IMAGE SCREEN control card used to represent the screen layout and further comprising text and attribute codes, and an END control card used to indicate the end of the screen image; parsing each of the control cards; and generating macro statements that define content and attributes of data fields on the image screen defined by the control cards in the image screen datafile.