Eddie,
First, this is not a Fortran, Fortran means simplicity, not overcrypting. Here despite most of codes are very good abbreviations from English you still have to rely on your memory to cut the options.
If this was Fortran it would be dead long ago due to its almost encrypted nature. It is literally impossible to remember all the two-letter codes. Better to say - well, you may memorize them when you heavily programming in Clearwin, but then you get 2-3 years interruption while using them very occasionally and then guess what? You start over looking into help. I've done that 3-4 times ! The codes always leave too much guessing. I was using CWP for 15 years, my couple codes have 30+ thousand of CWP codes each and i still very often look into the help to make sure that's the right code.
Other GUI builders took another more verbose approach which is kind of opposite corner. Their functions may have very many letters. Winteracter for example. People when they have very large codes tend to use larger variables which perfectly serves the purpose of self-documenting. Look at Linux sources - they sometimes use 63 character variables! And that's the key psychological point. We will not lose too much if we will type a bit more. We will not forget passwords if it is very long but very logical - we will forget them it will be short 6-8 numbo-letter soup. I am glad by the way that FTN95 is probably the only Fortran compiler which allows superlong variables much longer then 31 letter, i am very happy developers made it and use them permanently lately.
From the point of simplicity having too short codes is actually not a gain but a loss in readability. I hope that making at least three-letter codes will allow Clearwin+ to be expanded an additional order of magnitude not losing readability and 'memorability'.
I was making this list just as an example for all to look and found myself looking into help for 3/4 of them JUST TO MAKE SURE i do not mix them with something else! I marked some codes which clearly gain readability with the stars, and added minus when 2-letter codes look better. I guess sometimes third letter could be a number to make an options for 2-letter codes. The ptoposed abbreviations could be improved to be more close to natural English words we use for that specific purpose. Clearly some current two-letter codes run out of steam to find best equivalent. And with time things will be even worse - imagine 5 times more codes - it will be end of the game.
In short - three letter codes leave you with much less guessing what they are, they could be more systematically grouped, and they allow further natural language expansion of Clearwin+ to Clearwin+++++. 😃
%ac - %acc accelerator
%ap - %abp absolute position
%aw - %acw attach child window
%bc - %bco or %btc button color
%bd - %brd borders
%bf - %bfn or %bld bold font
%bg - %bgc background color (for everything else) **
%bh - %bbh bubble help
%bi - %bic button icon
%bk - %rmb right mouse button **
%bm - %bmp bitmap -
%br - %bar bar *
%bt - %btn button *
%bv - %tre tree view *
%bx - %box box *
%ca - %cap caption *
%ob - %obx open box
%cb - %cbx close box
%cc - %ccw Control Closure of Window
%ch - %chw child window
%cl - %pal palette colors **
%cn - %cnt center text
%co - %cob control box of %rd, %rf *
%cu - %cur cursor shape
%cv - %ctr control variable
%cw - %cww Clearwin Window
%dc - %dfc default cursor
%dd - %spi spin wheel Integer *
%df - %spf spin window flating point
%de - %daw disable windows *
%dl - %rpt repeating call of windows *
%dr - %drp drop file
%dw - %dgb draw graphics box
%dy - %mvy move in y direction
%eb - %ebx edit box
%el - %ecb edit combo box
%eq - %eqn equation **
%es - %esc esc
%ew - %exw exit Windows
%fb - %fnb font for buttons *
%fd - %fn5 font for Win95
%ff - %ffd form feed -
%fh - %fnW font from Windows **
%fl - %fpl FP limits ***
%fn - %fnt font **
%fr - %frm frame **
%fs - %dir directory to save *
%ft - %flt filter text *
%ga - %grb or %gar
%gd - %grd grid *
%gf - %ghf get handle of font
%gi - %gif add gif image *
%gp - %gpw get position of window *
%gr - %grw graphics window
%he - %hpp help position
%ht - %hpt hypertext
%hw - %hnw handle window
%hx - %hsb horizontal scrolbar **
%ib - %imb image buttom
%ic - %ico icon *
%if - %foc focus *
%il - %ilm integer limit -
%it - %ita italic
%lc - %hlc handle of last control *
%ld - %led LED symbol
%ls - %lbx list box
%lv - %lst list vew
%lw - %kep keep open
%mg - %msg Windows messages
%mi - %mic minimize icon
%mn - %mnu menu
%ms - %msb multi-selection box
%mv - %mov for tracking window movement
%nc - %cnm class name **
%nd - %nod no down
%nr - %nor no right
%ns - %nos no screen saver
%nl - %nwl new line
%ob - %obx open box
%og - %ogl OpenGL **
%pb - %pbx parameter box **
%pd - %pnd UK Pount symbol **
%pl - %spl or %spw SIMPLEPLOT window
%pm - %pop popum menu *
%ps - %pps property sheet *
%pv - %rsz resize ***
%rb - %rbt radiobutton
%rd - %rdi read integer variab ***
%re - %edi editor box **
%rf - see above read FP (%rdf, %rdi, %rdc)
%rj - %rjy right justify -
%rm - %pmn or %ppm - popup menu -
%rp - %rel relative position
%rs - %rdc see above read character (%rdf, %rdi, %rdc)
%sc - %ini initial call window
%sd - %sub subscript ***
%sf - %sfn standard font
%sh - %psh property sheet
%si - %sti standard icon
%sl - %sld slider
%sm - %smn system menu
%sp - %pos position of window
%ss - %sav save settings
%st - %str string
%su - %sup superscript **
%sv - %ssv screen saver
%sy - %stl style **
%sz - %szw size of window **
%ta - %tab tab *
%tb - %bmb bit map button **
%tc - %col or %clr or %tcl text color
%th - %tth tooltip help
%ti - %tbi task bar icon
%tl - %tln tab length
%ts - %tsz text size
%tt - %tbt text button **
%tv - %tre tree vew
%tx - %txc colored text
%ul - %und underline
%uw - %api to all windows API *
%vx - %vsb vertical screol bar
%wc - %wrc write character variab
%wd - %Wri write integer variab
%we - %wre write real variab
%wf - %wrf write real variab in F format
%wg - %wrg write real variab in G format
%ws - %wrc %wre char variab in A format
%wp - %wlp wallpaper bitmap
%wx - %Whx write hex **
%ww - %win window *
