A message in TAE is a line of information preceded by a "message key". The message key uniquely identifies the message. The format of the message key is "[facility-id]".
The "facility" is a short string, typically three characters, that identifies the software component generating the message. The "id" uniquely identifies the message within the facility.
To obtain more information about a message, the HELP command is used:
Example:
If the message
[TAE-UNRECCMD] Unrecognized command.
is displayed by TAE, the user may type "HELP-MESSAGE TAE-UNRECCMD" to request a detailed explanation of the TAE-UNRECCMD message.
If the message key is omitted from a HELP-MESSAGE command, then TAE provides an explanation of the most recently generated message. The special command, "?", is equivalent to "HELP-MESSAGE". Thus, the user may type "?" to obtain help on the last message.