EDTMSK

["Dan Bale" <dbale@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jeez, I really _almost_ hate to bring this up.  But it

?s one of those ?built the
90 foot bridge, but it?s 100 feet across the river? thingies (IBM built it!).

Several weeks ago, someone on this list (or on the RPG400-L???) educated me on
the use of display file keyword EDTMSK.  Boy, that just made my day!  So, I get
real smart, define an input 8-digit date field using the format ?mm/dd/yyyy?
using EDTWRD(?  /  /   0?) and EDTMSK(?  /  /    ?) in a new application.  Since
this is a prompt program, the date field will be zero until the user fills in
the date.  User calls the program, display comes up, date field is.....
BLANK!?!?!?!   NO! NO! NO!  What I want displayed was ?__/__/____?.  And not
?_0/00/0000?.

So what happens now is that user sees a blank entry and assumes that they need
to key the slashes.  Eh?  What happened?  Keyboard lock?  Hey, the cursor
skipped over the third input position.  And the sixth.  Dial Help Desk.  I?m
_not_ supposed to enter the slashes?  Oh.  Press Enter.  Ohhhh, now I see.
Repeat for hundreds of users who will start seeing this soon.  Make enemies with
Help Desk.

That?s not asking much, is it?

And why the heck didn?t someone in their right mind at IBM design EDTMSK to
allow it on non-numeric fields????

- Dan Bale