FRS commands are built‑in functions of the forms system that enable the user to view and edit the data on a form. Because they are actually built into FRS, they are available both in the Ingres forms-based tools, such as QBF, and in customized forms applications built with Vision, ABF, or the embedded query languages.

Through key mapping, you can link such capabilities as deleting a character, moving to the menu line, or scrolling within a table field, to program function and control keys (and arrow keys in UNIX or VMS), which are defined to Ingres as specific keyboard keys. For example, the following statement maps the redraw FRS command to controlW, which is defined to Ingres on most keyboards as the physical key, Control-W:

FRS commands allow you to write terminal‑independent application programs while taking advantage of available mapping keys. The application does not specify which control or escape sequences the user must generate at the keyboard to run a block of code; it just specifies which FRS command runs that block of code. FRS commands cannot be executed directly in program code; they are only available to the user through key mapping. You can map any function or control key to any FRS command. You can also map any arrow keys to any FRS command.