ftp.robelle3000.ai 2014/2014.06.ftp.robelle3000.ai.tar/ftp.robelle3000.ai/newsletter/1998/w1998-06.txt

Text File | 1998-12-21 | 26KB | 731 lines

What's Up, DOCumentation?



       Robelle Consulting Ltd.
       Unit 201, 15399-102A Ave.
       Surrey, B.C.  Canada  V3R 7K1
       Toll-free:    1-888-ROBELLE
                    (1-888-762-3553)
       Phone:       [phone]
       Fax:         [phone]
       E-mail: [e-mail]
       Web: www.robelle.com

Date:  December 1998

From:  Robert M. Green, CEO
       David J. Greer, President
       Mike Shumko, Editor pro tem

To:    Users of Robelle Software

Re:    News of the HP 3000 and of HP-UX, 1998 #6

    What You Will Find in This News Memo:

    New Suprtool Date Functions
    Qedit/iX 4.7.01 May Be Unreadable
    Frequently Asked (and Answered) Questions
       Y2K
       Upgrading Your System?
    Training Opportunities
    Bug in MPE/iX Powerpatch 5
    Newsletter Available by E-Mail
    Robelle Attends User Meetings
    Staff Spotlight: Dave Lo
    User Manual on the Web
    Qedit Screen Mode Also Works on HP Terminals
    New Windows Scripting Offers More Power & Choice
    Windows of the World Will Unite
    Suprtool Tips
       Find by Last Letter
       Search for Binary Data Using ASCII Criteria
    Part Two of Get vs. Chain
    Can't Run Your Bonus Programs





New Suprtool Date Functions
===========================

The new $stddate function in Suprtool, introduced in our June issue, adds
flexibility to handling date fields. Now you can:

- compare dates with dissimilar formats

- update six-digit dates in any format to eight-digit ccyymmdd dates

- create extracts with four-digit years from records with two-digit years

- compare six-digit dates to system date variables after Dec. 31, 1999

- perform less-than and greater-than comparisons on noncollating dates

- sort on six-digit dates by using multiple passes

For more examples of each of these $stddate applications, see our Web page at
http://www.robelle.com/support/faq/stddate.html.

Another new feature in the current pre-release is the Mod operation, which
saves the remainder after a division operation. This is useful in selections
based on specific digits of packed or binary numeric fields. For example, you
can compare the dd portion of a ccyymmdd date against another field or
constant:

    >comment   find orders in first half of month
    >get       order-detail
    >item      order-date,date,ccyymmdd
    >if        order-date mod 100 <= 15
    >output    ordbegin
    >xeq

Using the same concept and data, you can also compare the month portion of a
given date by using divide (/) and Mod together.

    >comment   find orders in Jan or Feb
    >get       order-detail
    >item      order-date,date,ccyymmdd
    >if        order-date / 100 mod 100 <= 02
    >output    ordbegin
    >xeq

A pre-release of Suprtool with $stddate and Mod is available now. There is no
charge for upgrades to customers with support.

[Paul Gobes]


Qedit/iX 4.7.01 May Be Unreadable
=================================

This message is directed to our users in the U.S. who recently received Qedit
MPE 4.7.01 software update tapes dated "NOV. 98". These tapes were made using
a DDS drive that had hardware compression enabled. This means that on some
systems the tapes will not restore; the Restore command will produce an error
message.

If any computers on which you have licensed Qedit/iX have DDS drives that do
not support hardware compression, please let us know so that we can replace
your tape.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you.

[Paul Gobes]


Frequently Asked (and Answered) Questions Department
====================================================

Y2K
---
Not surprisingly, the most frequently asked questions these days are related
to Robelle's products and Year 2000. Most of your questions are answered at
http://www.robelle.com/support/faq/year2000.html.

Like everybody else, we are undergoing our own Y2K readiness program so that
we'll be able to continue doing business with you. The book Year 2000 in a
Nutshell from O'Reilly has been very helpful. It looks at the issues from a
number of perspectives, including managerial, legal, and technical, and
provides a master plan for conversion projects.

Upgrading Your System?
----------------------
If you are upgrading your computer system within the same platform (e.g.,
from a series 9xx to another 9xx), the existing versions of your Robelle
products continue to work, free of charge. If you are adding a new system (as
opposed to upgrading or swapping), we offer generous licensing discounts on
additional systems.

If you are upgrading your O/S version, remember to check our Web pages for
compatibility information. In general, you need to upgrade your Robelle
products only if you want to take advantage of new features introduced in the
new O/S. There is no charge for upgrades to customers with support.

If you are going to upgrade to a new O/S, we recommend these specific
versions of our products:

- For MPE/iX 5.5, we recommend Qedit 4.4 or later, and Suprtool 3.8 or later.

- For MPE/iX 6.0, we recommend Qedit 4.6.02 or later, and Suprtool 4.1.04 or
  later.

[Mike Shumko]


Training Opportunities
======================

Want to find out about Robelle's two-day classes on Suprtool? Get course
details at our Web site (http://www.robelle.com/products/courses.html).

If you need more information about pricing and scheduling, call Mike Shumko
at 1-888-ROBELLE.

[Mike Shumko]


Bug in MPE/iX 5.5 Powerpatch 5
==============================

MPE/iX 5.5 Powerpatch 5 contained a performance enhancement patch for
operations that return unused disc space. Some customers discovered a bug in
this patch, however, when they performed a DBUTIL Erase operation, which
resulted in problems with their database.

A DBUTIL Erase asks the file system to reset the EOF and then fill the file
with zeros, from the beginning of the file to the old EOF. It then calls
FWRITEDIR to set the EOF. The problem was with the fill disc operation, which
was not completely erasing the space properly.

Typically, a customer can recognize this error from the following messages on
DBPUT operations. For detail datasets:

    TURBOIMAGE ERROR AT $00016710; RETURN STATUS = -3
    DBPUT, MODE 1, ON <dataset> OF <database>
    MPE FILE ERROR 0 RETURNED BY FREADDIR ON ROOT FILE

For master datasets DBPUT operations fail with

    DUPLICATE KEY VALUE IN MASTER 3) (dberror 43)

Any program that uses a similar strategy to either erase a file or return
unused disc space may corrupt the file. The risk is greater with large files
or files that have user labels such as database files, KSAM files or QUIZ
subfiles.

The problem is not limited to MPEKX79 in Powerpatch 5; it also exists in
these patches: MPEKXE4, MPEKXB5, MPEKX94, MPEKXE9 and MPEKXG6. The patch that
HP has developed to fix this problem (MPEKXJ3) is incorporated in Powerpatch
6.

To easily identify the problem in your system, use this simple Qedit script
file:

    /t hpswinfo.pub.sys
    /list "MPEKX79"
    /list "MPEKXB5"
    /list "MPEKXE4"
    /list "MPEKXE9"
    /list "MPEKX94"
    /list "MPEKXG6"

[Neil Armstrong]


Newsletter Available by E-Mail
==============================

You can subscribe to the paperless What's Up, DOCumentation? newsletter by
sending a request to [e-mail] with your name and e-mail address.

You can also read the on-line version at http://www.robelle.com/newsletter/.


Robelle Attends User Meetings
=============================

Robelle was recently invited to attend the Mortech and Software Research
Northwest user group meetings for applications that use Suprtool.

Mortech's application is Mail Order Cataloging. The users got together with
the application developers at Mortech's Little Rock, AK base to discuss the
system and how they use it. An impressive demo of ODBC was given by Curtis of
Palladin Press. Other presentations were given by Adager, HP and Robelle.
Rounding out this great meeting was a tour of the new offices and dinner at a
local brewery.

A week later in Washington, D.C., the Software Research Northwest (SRN) users
group gathered. Their application is used in student administration settings,
and many leading U.S. universities and colleges were present. SRN's system
has been enhanced to have a Web front-end that allows students, faculty and
administrators to enter and review their data. Wayne Holt and his SRN team
busily mixed with users throughout the sessions and into the more sociable
side of the meeting.

I'd like to thank the hosts for inviting Robelle, and thank all those who
attended the Suprtool tutorials.

[Paul Gobes]


Staff Spotlight: Dave Lo
========================

Dave Lo has been with Robelle for nine years now, but only lately has his
profile been raised. He started out working on our Bonus and QLIB programs,
the Qedit product and UNIX-related projects. A year ago Dave became more well
known among Robelle users when he joined the Tech Support team. Now, he co-
ordinates our technical documentation and is currently the Robelle Webmaster.

Dave came to Canada from Hong Kong in 1974. He earned his Computer Science
degree at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He then worked on
PC psychiatric software ("You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it
helps.") before joining Robelle. Dave practices Qigong (pronounced chee-gung)
which is similar to the meditative aspects of Tai Chi. He maintains an
extensive Qigong Web site at http://www.robelle.com/~dlo/qigong/.

[Paul Gobes]

Editor's note: You can get on-line information about all your favorite
Robellians in the updated company brochure at http://www.robelle.com/
robelle.html.


User Manual on the Web
======================

Until now, the only way you could get a Qedit for Windows User Manual or
Quick Start Guide was to get a printed copy from Robelle or your distributor.
Starting with the latest version of Qedit for Windows, these documents are
available for download in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. All you need is the free
Adobe Acrobat Reader to view or print the documents.

The PDF files can be downloaded from Robelle at http://www.robelle.com/
products/qwin/download.html.

[Dave Lo]


Qedit Screen Mode Also Works on HP Terminals
============================================

In our previous newsletter we advised that HP was no longer supporting block-
mode in HP-UX version 11. (See http://www.robelle.com/library/newsletter/
w1998-05.html#hp-ux.) We suggested using Qedit's screen mode, which had been
designed primarily for VT terminals.

What we didn't make clear was that screen mode works equally well if you use
an HP terminal (or PC software emulating an HP terminal). Screen mode uses
character-mode keystrokes in a full-screen environment, and enables features
such as "live" scrolling, cutting-and-pasting, splitting and joining lines,
etc. Enter Help VT at the Qedit/UX prompt for more information.

Screen mode uses the HP-UX curses library to make it terminal-independent.

[Hans Hendriks]


New Windows Scripting Offers More Power & Choice
================================================

For years, the only scripting language available for MS Windows has been the
original MS-DOS batch language. While tools like WinBatch have been
available, they are difficult to use and error-prone because they work at the
user interface level (simulating user actions such as selecting menu
commands). Microsoft has now released its own scripting language: Windows
Scripting Host (WSH).

Once you have installed WSH, you can write your scripts in either VBScript or
JScript. Both VBScript and JScript are much more powerful languages than the
old MS-DOS command language. With scripts you can:

- automate tasks

- access the file system, to create, open, read, or write to files

- create instances of COM objects, such as Microsoft Excel (e.g., start
  Excel, create a new worksheet, and then add data to it)

Installing WSH

Although WSH is bundled with Windows 98, you must select it as part of the
installation. You can download a version for Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0
from http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting.

After installing WSH, you have two new programs to choose from: Wscript or
Cscript. Wscript is short for Windows Script and Cscript is short for Command
Script. Both tools accept and run any script. Wscript provides a Windows
dialog box for running the script, while Cscript is more appropriate for
running a script from the MS-DOS prompt in Windows 95 or 98, or from the
command prompt in Windows NT.

You can make either Wscript or Cscript the default for running scripts.
Files ending in .vbs are assumed to be VBScript and files ending in .js are
assumed to be JScript. Because I happen to be a C/C++ programmer, and JScript
uses a more C-like syntax than VBScript, the remaining examples in this
article are in JScript. But the nice thing about WSH is that you can choose
your scripting language; if you are more comfortable in Visual Basic, use
VBScript instead.

First Example

Our first example will echo any command-line parameters. Obtaining the
command-line parameters and echoing them require access to the WSH shell
object. We'll first show you the script, then explain how it works:

    /* Sample script to echo command-line parameters.
        Copyright Robelle Consulting Ltd. 1998
    */
    // Version number for this script
    var Version = "Version 1.0";
    // Shell object needed for command-line access and echoing
    var WSHShell   = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");
    function Welcome()
    {
        WScript.Echo("First Sample WSH Script " + Version);
        WScript.Echo("Copyright 1998 Robelle Consulting Ltd.");
    } /* Welcome */
    function EchoScriptParameters()
    {
        var args = WScript.Arguments;
    if (args.Count() == 0)
        WScript.Echo("There are no command-line arguments");
    else
        for (inx = 0; inx < args.Count(); inx++)
            WScript.Echo(args.Item(inx));
    }
    //  Mainline
        Welcome();
        EchoScriptParameters();

Explaining the Example

We start the script with a comment. Multi-line comments start with /* and end
with */. Single line comments start with // (everything from // to the end of
the line is ignored by JScript). The first statement is

    var Version = "Version 1.0";

This statement creates a variable called Version, which is a string with a
value of Version 1.0. You refer to the variable by using its name, Version.
Like C, JScript is case-sensitive so that the variable name in title case
(Version) is not the same as the variable name in lowercase (version). We
then create an object with the statement.

    var WSHShell   = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");

The WScript.Shell object is part of WSH. This object gives you access to
command-line arguments, environment variables, Windows shortcuts, and other
useful objects for scripting. Use the WSHShell object to:

- echo strings to stdlist

- gain access to the command-line arguments object

Functions

The next group of statements declare a function:

    function Welcome()
    {
        WScript.Echo("First Sample WSH Script " + Version);
        WScript.Echo("Copyright 1998 Robelle Consulting Ltd.");
    } /* Welcome */

This function writes lines to stdlist using the WScript.Echo method. We can
concatenate two strings together by using the + operator. The first string
that we echo concatenates a constant (First Sample WSH Script) with a
variable (Version). Although this first example does not contain these
features, functions in JScript can have parameters and can return results.

Command Line Processing

The EchoScriptParameters() function echoes each command-line argument to
stdlist:

    function EchoScriptParameters()
    {
        var args = WScript.Arguments;
    if (args.Count() == 0)
        WScript.Echo("There are no command-line arguments");
    else
        for (inx = 0; inx < args.Count(); inx++)
            WScript.Echo(args.Item(inx));
    }

How do we access the command-line arguments? We have to use an object to do
this. We create the args object with

    var args = WScript.Arguments;

The args object has the properties and methods that we need. The Count()
method returns the number of command-line arguments. Because we want our
script to echo something reasonable, even if no command-line arguments are
present, we check to see if there are zero arguments. If there are arguments,
we iterate through each of them using

    for (inx = 0; inx < args.Count(); inx++)
        WScript.Echo(args.Item(inx));

The for loop uses standard C notation. The interesting part of it is

    args.Item(inx)

Remember that args is the WScript.Arguments object. Each command-line
argument is referred to by index. The first argument is args.Item(0), the
second is args.Item(1), and so on. We use the variable name inx to loop
through each possible argument, passing the value of the argument to the

    WScript.Echo() method, where it is displayed on stdlist.

Invoking Functions

We finish our script with the main controlling part. For this script, it is
simple-we invoke the Welcome() and EchoScriptParameters() functions that we
wrote.

    Welcome();
    EchoScriptParameters();

Note that you must specify parentheses () when invoking a function.
Otherwise, JScript assumes you are referring to a variable instead of a
function.

Invoking the Script

Our script is designed to run from Cscript. You can run this script from
Wscript, but each Echo() would result in a separate message box (which you
would have to dismiss). Assume that this script is in the file called
first.js. You would then invoke it as follows (user input is underlined):

    cscript first.js
    ----------------
        Microsoft (R) Windows Scripting Host Version 5.0 for Windows
        Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-1997. All rights .
        First Sample WSH Script Version 1.0
        Copyright 1998 Robelle Consulting Ltd.
        There are no command-line arguments

Our second example below shows how to invoke Cscript, preventing it from
showing the Microsoft banner and passing three parameters called One, Two,
and Three:

    cscript //nologo first.js One Two Three
    ---------------------------------------
        First Sample WSH Script Version 1.0
        Copyright 1998 Robelle Consulting Ltd.
        One
        Two
        Three
        Summary

With Windows Scripting Host, Microsoft has provided a new set of powerful
scripting features for the MS Windows platform. Both JScript and VBScript
offer powerful programming features, and the ability of these scripts to
control objects makes them very useful. For example, Robelle has been using
JScript to automate a number of processes.

In our next issue, we'll discuss creating an Excel spreadsheet.

[David Greer]


Windows of the World Will Unite
===============================

Starting in 1999, all versions of Windows will share the same name. Windows
2000 is Microsoft's new name for all upcoming operating systems currently
known as Windows 98, Windows NT Workstation, and Windows NT Server.

Windows NT 5.0 will now be called Windows 2000, and will start appearing in
1999. There will be one desktop version, called Windows 2000 Professional,
and three server versions of Windows 2000. Server versions will support
different numbers of processors and clustering. Price options for new
versions may be closer to each other than the current pricing of NT Server's
standard and enterprise editions, which can differ by a factor of ten.
Eventually, a 64-bit version of the O/S will offer increased performance over
the 32-bit version.

Windows 98 is the final consumer O/S with 16-bit components. A true 32-bit
NT-based O/S will replace it in two to two and a half years, and will carry a
200x year designation.

[Mike Shumko]


Suprtool Tips
=============

Find by Last Letter
-------------------
Q: Our mail-order company wants to do a mailing to the young-and-hip
generation with selection based on the first name (the perfect criteria). Is
there a way to find all names that end in a certain letter? For example, all
names that end in i (e.g., Nicki, Kerri, Jenni, Tori).

A: Use Suprtool's pattern matching capabilities:

    >if firstname=="@i~"

This tells Suprtool to look for any letters, followed by an i, followed only
by zero or more blanks.

Search for Binary Data Using ASCII Criteria
-------------------------------------------
Q: The field in the dataset is in I2 binary integer format, but the external
flat file (myfile) with the search values is in ASCII:

    123456789
        88772
       012345

A: Convert the file of ASCII values to binary.

    >input     myfile
    >define    disp-num,1,9,display
    >define    i2-num,1,4,integer
    >extract   i2-num = disp-num
    >output    file2
    >xeq

Then search the dataset using the binary values.

    >get       my-dset
    >table     tab,my-keyfield,file,file2
    >if        $lookup( tab,my-keyfield )
    >output    result
    >xeq

[Dave Lo]


Part 2 of Get vs. Chain
=======================

In the last issue of this newsletter we discussed how you can determine which
Suprtool command, Get or Chain, would be more efficient at reading records
with particular key values in a detail dataset. In this article we discuss
how to automate the Get vs. Chain choice.

Remember that the goal is to find the point at which Get and Chain take the
same amount of I/O. The key ingredients in the calculation are:
the number of I/Os Suprtool uses to read the entire dataset
the average number of records in each chain

Number of Suprtool I/Os

It is possible to figure out the first number theoretically, but it is far
easier to have Suprtool tell us how many I/Os it actually uses. This piece of
a job stream can make the necessary calculation:

    !purge outfile,temp
    !run suprtool.pub.robelle>outfile
    set       statistics on
    set       progress 0
    base      mybase
    get       d-notes
    output    $null
    exit
    !
    !run qedit.pub.robelle
    text      outfile
    delete    "FREAD"(nomatch)
    change    1/30 "setvar d_notes_suprtool_fread_count "
    keep      outfile1
    exit

It runs Suprtool, redirecting its $stdlist to a file that we post-process
with Qedit (any text editor will do, even POSIX text-processing tools). The
result is a command file, outfile1, which contains a Setvar command that sets
a variable with the number of I/Os.

    setvar d_notes_suprtool_fread_count 293

Average Number of Records per Chain

HowMessy, a Bonus program that comes free with Suprtool, can tell you the
average chain length of a dataset. HowMessy reports this information in two
ways: it prints a report, and it writes a self-describing file with the data.
The following piece of a job stream shows how to analyze the self-describing
file:

    !run howmessy.pub.robelle;info="p"
    trial
    d-notes
    {blank line = no more datasets}
    {blank line = no more databases}
    !
    !run suprtool.pub.robelle
    input     loadfile
    if        dataset = "D-NOTES"
    define    integer,1,2,integer
    extract   "setvar d_notes_ios_per_chain "
    extract   integer = avechain
    extract   " + 1"
    output    outfile2,ascii
    exit

The result is another command file, outfile2, which contains a Setvar command
that sets a variable with the average number of I/Os needed to read a chain:

    setvar d_notes_ios_per_chain    42  + 1

The assumption for reading detail datasets by chain is that every record
takes one I/O for each DBGET, plus each key value in the chain needs one I/O
for every DBFIND. Therefore the number of I/Os is the number of records plus
one.

Calculate the Break-Even Point

With the results of the two prior steps, you can figure out the break-even
point at which Get and Chain take about the same amount of I/O. This value is
expressed as a number of chains.

    !outfile1
    !outfile2
    !setvar d_notes_break_even d_notes_suprtool_fread_count / &
    !    d_notes_ios_per_chain

Don't Recalculate Every Time!

The goal of this exercise is for your job streams to work at top efficiency.
It would be terribly inefficient to recalculate the break-even point every
time you need it. We suggest that you create the command files only once a
week, or as often as you normally run HowMessy. Save the final command file
with a name that matches the name of the dataset (e.g., dnotes).

    !echo setvar d_notes_break_even !d_notes_break_even > dnotes
    !save dnotes

Then invoke the following one-line command file as needed:

    !dnotes
    !
    !setvar number_of_chains,finfo("values",19)
    !
    !if number_of_chains > d_notes_break_even then
    !
    !   {run suprtool with a Get command}
    !
    !else
    !
    !   {run suprtool with a Chain command}
    !
    !endif

[Mike Shumko]


Can't Run Your Bonus Programs?
==============================

We get regular support calls asking: "Qedit or Suprtool is running fine, but
HowMessy doesn't want to run because it says it has expired. What's up?"
What's up is that you probably didn't quite finish the installation
instructions.

Robelle distributes update tapes for MPE products with all the necessary
files for a full installation of the primary product (e.g., Suprtool), the
Bonus programs (e.g., HowMessy), and the QLIB programs (e.g., Prose). But the
files have "safe" file names, so that by restoring the files you don't
immediately overwrite the production version of the software. Suprtool is on
the tape as SuprCM and SuprNM, HowMessy is there as MessyCM and MessyNM, etc.

Streaming the installation job copies your current version into the PubOld
group and renames the new version (xxCM or xxNM as appropriate) into the Pub
group.

But there are separate job streams for Suprtool, Qedit and the Bonus
programs: Install.Suprjob.Robelle installs Suprtool, Install.Qeditjob.Robelle
installs Qedit, and Bonus.Job.Robelle installs the Bonus programs.

So if your version of HowMessy (or Spell, Select, Compare or Xpedit) has
expired, but your primary products have not, chances are all you need to do
is stream Bonus.Job.Robelle.

[Hans Hendriks]