HP 3000 Manuals

HP System Dictionary XL Gen. Ref. Vol. 2-Part 3 SDCONV

MPE COMMANDS 

MPE commands may be entered from within SDCONV but must begin with a ':'.
They can be extended to more than one line by attaching the line
extender, '&' character, at the end of the line.  However, unlike other
SDCONV multi-line commands, you should not attach the ending period.

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation