STATUS gets the attribute value of a widget previously created by ASSIGN. Attributes contain a single value or an array of values of either numeric or string type. A shorthand method is to use two string arrays where one contains all the attribute settings, and the other receives attribute values. Elements of the attribute array that contain nothing will be ignored and the corresponding element of the value array will remain unchanged.
STATUS gets widget values by using widget "handles" instead of I/O paths to access registers 0 and 1 which are defined for widgets..
Status Register 0 is defined for all I/O paths. For example:
STATUS @Io_path,0;Numeric_var ! returns a 5 which means @Io_path is a widget
STATUS @Pb_12,1;Numeric_var ! returns a 6 meaning @Pb_12 is a CRT device
Error 170 - I/O operation not allowed occurs when using ENTER, OUTPUT, TRANSFER, etc., (all other commands associated with I/O paths assigned to devices.