• Your System/36 Information is Very Helpful

  December 18, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Hey, Ted:

  I don’t know how many questions on S/36-related topics you receive each month, but think I have a good idea.

  Have you ever considered publishing an S/36 or RPG II “Friday update” column, or reserve the middle of each month for RPG II and System/36 questions and answers? Maybe you could poll the audience.

  — Doug

  That is something to consider, Doug.

  Well, readers. Do you want more S/36 information? Please let me know at tholt@itjungle.com. Place either S36YES or S36NO in the subject line so my email program will direct your votes to specified folders. That will

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• Debugging Java Script

  December 18, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Hey, David:

  I was playing around with JavaScript after reading your article, “Protecting HTML Page Elements with JavaScript and CSS.” Using your code as a base, I changed one of my pages to do something similar and managed to key the function name incorrectly in the onchange attribute. I spent quite a while looking for the error and didn’t find it until I went to advanced options in Internet Explorer and checked the Display a notification about every script error checkbox.

  If I should ever repeat that mistake, how would I locate JavaScript errors?

  While testing, I also

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• Make Qshell Clean Up After Itself

  December 18, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

   

   

  Hey, Ted:

  I’ve written a Qshell script that creates some work files that are needed only for the duration of the script. I want the script to delete them before it ends. Here’s the problem: There are several places where the script can end normally and plenty of places where execution of the script could end abnormally. In CL, I’d use a goto command to branch to an end-of-job routine, where I could put commands to clean up, but Qshell does not have a goto command.

  I never thought I’d wish for a goto command, but I do. …

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• Reader Feedback and Insights: RPG Compiler Directives and V4

  December 13, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Hey, Ted:

  I tried your tip about compiler directives (“Compiler Directives for RPG Programs and Modules “), and it worked great.

  However, my shop runs V4R5M0, so I checked the PTF. It is now superseded by SF66841.

  SEU does not like the “/include” directive, even though the RPG compiler takes it. Do you know of a PTF to update SEU?

  — Howard

  Thanks for the updated PTF number.

  As far as I know, SEU is not going to recognize the directives, even though the compiler will.

  — Ted

  Sponsored By ADVANCED SYSTEMS CONCEPTS

  Business Analytics – Practical – –

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• Ensuring Valid XML Content

  December 13, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Hey, David:

  I will preface this email by saying that my knowledge of XML is limited, but I’ve been able to use the Xerces parser to move XML data to a physical file using QSH/Java.

  Now, if you’re receiving an XML file from a customer, how do you guarantee that the customer’s XML document references your external DTD? What would prevent the customer from embedding an “invalid” DTD in the XML document?

  — Chris

  The problem you describe is one of the limitations you have to deal with when you use a Document Type Definition (DTD) to validate XML documents.

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• Spacing between Concatenated Strings

  December 13, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Dear Readers:

  A neat feature of RPG’s CAT op code that I have used from time to time is its ability to insert a specified number of blanks between two concatenated values. The number of blanks is specified in Factor 2, following a string and a colon (:). The new way to concatenate in RPG is by using the plus sign (+) operator, but the plus sign doesn’t support the specified number of blanks option. One reader has developed a solution, and today I pass it along to you.

  — Ted

  Hey, Ted:

  Sometimes when I’m concatenating strings together using

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• SBMJOB’s RQSDTA Parameter

  December 11, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Hey, Ted:

  In the “Odds and Ends” column that published in Midrange Guru on November 8, 2002, you wrote about appending an extra character to the end-of-character parameters that are longer than 32 characters in order to pass them through the Submit Job (SBMJOB) command without running into the problem of garbage data replacing trailing blanks. There is another alternative.

  The alternative choice is to use the Request Data (RQSDTA) parameter instead of the Command (CMD) parameter.

  These two simple example CL programs show the difference:

  TstSbmPgm:  pgm
  
   dcl   &cmdstr   *char  64  value( 'sndmsg hi MyMsgQ' )
   dcl   

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• Subfile Positioning

  December 11, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Hey, Ted:

  I have several RPG IV programs that display a subfile in a work-with-like display. Users enter option numbers in the option field that begins each subfile record. When a user selects a subfile record, the system usually displays another display format in order to handle the request. When the subfile is redisplayed, the first page of the subfile is shown. How can I position the subfile to the page that contains the selected subfile record?

  — Patrick

  You need to add the Subfile Record Number (SFLRCDNBR) keyword to your display files. Use this keyword with a four-digit, hidden,

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• Readers Prefer ISDB

  December 11, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Dear Readers:

  In the article, “Use the Full-Screen Debugger with OPM Programs,” which published in the November 6, 2002, edition of Midrange Guru, I asked for your reasons why you prefer ISDB to the full-screen ILE debugger. Several of you responded.

  Here are the reasons some Midrange Guru readers prefer ISDB, in order of preference.

  Most readers liked the fact that ISBD allows you to watch the value of one or more variables as you step through the source code. The variables’ values are shown at the top of the display. STRDBG requires you to continually press

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• Reader Feedback and Insights: One-Row Table Still Needed

  December 6, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Hey, Ted:

  In the article, “Overlooking the Obvious,” which published in the November 8 issue of Midrange Guru, you asked the question, “does anybody have a use for a one-row, one-column table?”

  I’ll still need one for the near future.

  • I don’t have a C compiler or interactive SQL, so I’m stuck without variables.
  • I run a lot of test scripts initially in Operations Navigator (cwbundbs), and it’s handy for testing the duration of things:

  select 'start',now() from onerec;
  update some long thing with a few statements;
  select 'end',now() from onerec;
  

  ONEREC is my one-row table. I

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