Re: V5R1 Library List Enhancement (was: PRTCMDUSG RTVJOBA) -- MIDRANGE-L


Al,

This V5R1 feature is documented.  If you only use the minimum then you
won't have problems.  For example, we are a BPCS shop.  BPCS stores the
library list in a data area.  And while you have a point about the 2000
bytes, it will only be a problem if you really need that many libraries in
your library list.  (And BPCS has one program which accesses that library
list - BPCSMENU.  Basically a single point of fix needed.)  You can still
do a RTVJOBA into a smaller variable.  The only people who will have a
problem are the people who needed this function in the first place.  There
is no panic - unless you write tools and have to have them available for
everyone, including those who may use the larger variable size.  I don't
see any point in berating IBM for giving us new function.  I am sure there
are tool manufacturers who got upset because IBM changed from RPGIII to
RPGIV and now they had to change their tool to accommodate new column
positions.  And I'll bet that there is a boss somewhere who won't let their
shop use RPGIV because they wrote the homegrown tool for their shop and
their pride is on the line.


Rob Berendt

==================
Remember the Cole!


                                                                                
                 
                    barsa@barsaconsulti                                         
                 
                    ng.com                     To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com  
                 
                    Sent by:                   cc:                              
                 
                    owner-midrange-l@mi        Subject:     V5R1 Library List 
Enhancement (was:  
                    drange.com                 PRTCMDUSG RTVJOBA)               
                 
                                                                                
                 
                                                                                
                 
                    04/06/2001 11:06 AM                                         
                 
                    Please respond to                                           
                 
                    MIDRANGE-L                                                  
                 
                                                                                
                 
                                                                                
                 





Hi,

Just for the record, the correct spelling of the word "enhancement" is
"f-i-a-s-c-o".

I intend to be very vocal about the V5R1 increase in number of libraries in
the user portion of the library list.  I have refrained from comment in
this forum until I received a clearance from Rochester, which I received on
Tuesday.  I had received clearance to speak about this informally at the
Fall COMMON conference in Baltimore.  Prior to that conference, I also
conducted about 10 to 12 interviews on the topic, and reported those
results to IBM.  IBM paid about as much attention to my findings as the
Morton Thiokol engineers did to the space shuttle o-rings.  As far as I can
determine, they never contacted any of the interviewees (whose names and
identification I provided) on a timely basis when the resolution of this
problem was being determined.

The problem is that IBM increased the number of libraries in the user
portion of the library list from 25 to 250 in the unannounced release of
OS/400.  This will cause any properly coded RTVJOBA command (As well as
some APIs) that specified the USRLIBL to fail if more than 25 libraries are
found on the list  (My definition of properly coded is that the return
value has to be 275 bytes.)

IBM has provided a poorly designed band-aid for V5R1 via PTF.  I was the
person that requested IBM to code the fix, and they coded it improperly.
(They cannot complain that they didn't know how to write the fix,as I gave
them the pseudo code.  Depending on how inadequate the PTF proves, I may
clean it up and publish the pseudo code here, but I'm too busy at the
moment.)  When you exceed 25 libraries on the list, the IBM PTF provides a
different escape message, so you code abends with a different error
message.  This is about as exciting as kissing your sister.  The fix
provides a system wide patch (no, not scoped over the job, which is what is
needed) that will only be supported for a few releases.  (In fairness to
IBM, a system wide patch was about what we could have expected from them at
the time I discovered the problem anything else would have been too
expensive to code, based on how complete that release of OS/400 has
progressed.  This negates the fact that the both the functional addition
and the patch were not well thought out.)

They're fairly mad at me for complaining about this, but what else is new?
The last time I complained about anything as severely as I plan to complain
about this, it was when I said that "V3R1 sucked", and of course, IBM said
that V3R1 was stable and told me I was wrong.

The long term solution is that you must find every RTVJOBA command that
uses the USRLIBL parameter, and replace the returned variable from 275 to
2750 bytes.  Depending on what you do with that data*, this could cause
other parts of that program to fail.

Assuming that you have all of your source, this is not an impossible task.
   You could scan for every RTVJOBA using PDM, and then examine every
   command by hand for USRLIBL.
   There is a new TAA Tool called Scan Command Keyword (SCNCMDKWD).  You
   can specify the command name and the keyword name.

In both cases it is your responsibility to make sure that the program will
still run.  You also (reasonably speaking) need a license to SEU.

   *  Exactly what you do with the returned data will determine the
   complexity of the fix.  As far as I can determine, most people stuff it
   into a few different variables, so the fix is easy.  If you stuff it
   into a data area, this is tougher, because the maximum length of a data
   area is 2000 bytes.  I know of one vendor that puts every library name
   into a different field in a database file - oh god forbid!

If you don't have your source, you have been @#$%ed by IBM.  Why is this
significant?  This is the first time that IBM has done this to you (making
a change to the architecture of the system and requiring you to go back to
source) ever in the system.  There are some notable exceptions:
   In Release 3.0 of CPF, IBM required you to recompile every CL program.
   However in that release they added the new RTVCLSRC command, and of
   course, prior to that, there was no notion of ALWRTVSRC(*NO).
   The first release of the System/38 Migration Aid (5714MG1) had no notion
   that observability could have been removed.  When IBM discovered that
   some vendors were removing the program template, they added a diagnostic
   aid to this product.
   The RMVOBS parameter of CHGPGM was added in V1R2M0 of OS/400, but (IMHO)
   IBM provided adequate warning of the drawbacks.

What IBM should have done (and should still do in a future release of the
system) is add this feature as a system value, allow the system value to
default into an attribute of a job description, and at job initiation time,
the value should be propagated to the job.  The value needs to be
consistently added to both the native AS/400 functionality, and the
System/38 compatibility command set.  (This sounds like a lot of work, but
it's really trivial.  In fact the current PTF is inconsistently applied
over the native commands and the System/38 commands.)  It also needs to be
extended to save/restore.  I have privately submitted my proposed changes
to IBM in detail, and they have yet to respond with any intentions to do
anything other than file them in the circular file.

In my opinion, the change was not well thought out by IBM.  (My upcoming
magazine article on this subject might be less polite in terminology.)

Al

Al Barsa, Jr.
Barsa Consulting Group, LLC

400>390

914-251-1234
914-251-9406 fax

http://www.barsaconsulting.com
http://www.taatool.com







                    MacWheel99@aol.com
                    Sent by:                   To:
MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com (AS400 & family discussion group),
                    owner-midrange-l@mi        BPCS-L@midrange.com (BPCS
Users Discussion Group)
                    drange.com                 cc:
                                               Subject:     PRTCMDUSG
RTVJOBA

                    03/31/01 12:00 PM
                    Please respond to
                    MIDRANGE-L






From
MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)

Below is cut & paste of information from an AS400network newsletter that I
want to talk about ... I left their advertiser URLs included in hopes they
will not get annoyed with me for forwarding their copyrighted stuff.  Item
#
4 affects BPCS & probably every other ERP & other software package that
anyone is using on the 400.

PRTCMDUSG gets at a list of all programs that use a particular command.
I learned about this command in prior MIDRANGE-L discussion about
cross-referencing where various software objects are used.

We have 800 CL programs in our BPCS 405 CD live environment library list
that
use RTVJOBA.  Some of them are our modifications, but most are vanilla base

BPCS.
RTVJOBA is the first of the 5 commands listed in the newsletter that will
return more information starting OS/400 V5.  This is not the whole picture,

but I have to start somewhere.

RTVJOBA can be used to retrieve a lot of stuff about a job ... library list

information is not its only usage, so in many cases the fact that OS400 V5
is
going from 25 to 250 user libraries in the list won't make a bit of
difference, but when the retrieval is to access the library list
information,
the fact that more data is coming back could have a detrimental effect
depending on how the software is written, and depending on if & when we
utilize the extra libraries.

The situation for BPCS V6 users is different than for BPCS 405 CD because
V6
users do not have access to the source code, rather all code is via SSA's
"case" AS/Set.  SSA had announced that they dropping support for 405 CD
effective end of May 2001.  This IBM V5 is due out beginning of May 2001.
Now there are SEVERAL places that offer good quality tech support for BPCS
405 CD when SSA's ends, so that is not a problem.  My thoughts are

a) Does SSA know about this? (I sent a general inquiry to SSA tech support
to
ask)
b) Can we expect a final REL 03 aggregate collection of BMRs at the end of
405 CD that includes a fix for this nuance?

Assuming that we can not depend on such an expectation, there is a joint
challenge of identifying inventorying what all our retrieve library list
software is doing to figure out the impact & what needs fixing.

I think there is a PDM search & substitute command string that I need to
learn, except I like to look at what exactly is happening in each instance.

However PDM search might help in mapping out how RTVJOBA is used in our 800

programs.

Subj:    Club Tech iSeries Programming Tips - 03.29.01
From:   ClubTechiSeriesPrgrmTips@list.as400network.com
(ClubTechiSeriesPrgrmTips)

*********** Club Tech iSeries Programming Tips Newsletter ***********
An AS400 Network Publication              http://www.as400network.com
Home of NEWS/400 Magazine
Issue 41                                               March 29, 2001

Sponsored by Generic Software, Inc., at (800) 698-5669 or visit
http://www.genericsoftware.com/html/save_output_queue.htm .

<snip>

THIS WEEK:
> APIs by Example: Read/Write an IFS File Line in RPG IV
> APIs by Example: Read an IFS File Line in Cobol
> Data Area Editor Utility
> Poor Man's Cross-Reference
> Maximum Libraries in *LIBL to Change from 25 to 250
< big snip >

* Make your RPG Programs happy! Download RPG-Alive...
  http://www.RPGAlive.com

<snip>

4. MAXIMUM LIBRARIES IN *LIBL TO CHANGE FROM 25 TO 250
The V5 release of OS/400, due out in May, changes the maximum number
of libraries in the user part of a library list (*LIBL) from 25 to
250. This will alleviate some problems that arose from the previous
limitations, but it may cause other problems with your existing code.

The new versions of the RTVJOBA (Retrieve Job Attribute) command and
the QUSRJOBI (Retrieve Job Information), QWCRTVCA (Retrieve Current
Attributes), QUSRSPLA (Retrieve Spool File Attributes), and QWDRJOBD
(Retrieve Job Description) APIs can now return more data than in
previous releases. Be sure that any applications you have that use one
of these interfaces provides enough room for 250 libraries in the
return value.

When you increase the size of a return variable, you can still safely
call V4R5 and earlier releases of these interfaces because there is no
harm in providing more space than needed. Just be sure that your own
application logic correctly handles however many library entries are
returned.

For more information, see:
http://www.ibm.com/eserver/iseries/developer/os400/lib_list.html

Thanks to Paul Conte for the above item

<snip>

http://as400network.com/str/books/uniquebook2.cfm?NextBook=181 .

This newsletter is edited by Chuck Lundgren,
mailto:clundgren@as400network.com .

FOR NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS, you can subscribe by joining the AS400 Network
with a handy Web form at http://www.as400network.com/join/ .

IF YOU WANT TO SPONSOR a Club Tech iSeries Programming Tips
Newsletter, please contact your AS400 Network sales manager. Click
here for details:
http://www.as400network.com/info/mediakit/Sales/Index.htm .
___________________________
Copyright 2001, NEWS/400
http://www.as400network.com
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