RE: Creating file in IFS with code page 420 - but Ineed squarebrackets

["John Allen" <jallen@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK (I think) I will do some testing in see if I do actually get it or not.


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Vern Hamberg
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 3:38 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Creating file in IFS with code page 420 - but Ineed
squarebrackets

John

Ir may be a distinction without a difference, but I don't think you 
would be creating a file with different code pages - the file itself 
would have a code page for the text portions - the actual content is, as 
Simon said, more like a binary file, which really doesn't have a code 
page. Therefore you have to control what that content looks like using 
the direct write functions.

Vern

John Allen wrote:
> Thanks Simon,
>
> I was thinking I would have to do something like that but was not sure I
> could create a file using two different code pages.
>
> One quick question.
> You are correct I was using CPYTOSTMF to get the file to the IFS (or file
> server)
> Would CPYTOSTMF work if I converted to ASCII using both code pages
> Then using the CPYTOSTMF specify CVTDTA(*NONE)
> Because no conversion is required if I already converted everything to
> ASCCII when the file was created in the program
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Simon Coulter
> Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2009 2:33 PM
> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> Subject: Re: Creating file in IFS with code page 420 - but I need
> squarebrackets
>
>
> On 23/11/2009, at 2:02 AM, John Allen wrote:
>
>   
> > I am trying to create a PDF file in the IFS and I need it to contain  
> > square
> > brackets [ ] for PDF formatting
> >
> > I also need to use code page 420 to retain Arabic characters
> >
> > Code Page 420 does not include square brackets so those characters get
> > converted to some weird characters during the translation when using
> > CPYTOSTMF
> >
> > Does anyone have any ideas how I can retain the Arabic characters in  
> > code
> > page 420 but also include the square bracket required for PDF files
> >
> > (Creating a PDF file requires the [ ] characters in it's file  
> > structure)
> >     
>
>
> PDFs are effectively a binary file format. One code page is used for  
> the file structure and another is used for the content.
>
> It's been a long time since I had to delve into PDF creation but as I  
> recall the file structure should be in Adobe Standard (1276) or Adobe  
> Latin-1 (1277) depending on which PDF version is being targeted. These  
> are very similar to 819.
>
> The content can be in any code page supported by Adobe. Thus your PDF  
> should have data in two code pages therefore it cannot be stored  
> reliably with a single CCSID.
>
> Given your mention of CPYTOSTMF I suspect you are building a sort-of  
> PDF in EBCDIC (using RPG or similar HLL) and then attempting to  
> convert from your EBCDIC format to an ASCII format for the final PDF  
> stream file. That's not going to work. Most of the freebie examples do  
> it that way but they are wrong. It only works in the examples because  
> they are written (generally) by (or for) Americans and expect to  
> operate on EBCDIC 37 data and are usually converted to ASCII 819 as  
> the final step. Very misguided. Converting EBCDIC 37 to ASCII 819  
> works because all (or enough of) the necessary characters exist in  
> both character sets. The technique fails miserably when applied to  
> anything more complex than English (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic,  
> Hebrew, Cyrillic, Greek, Thai, etc.)
>
> The only way to correctly build a PDF is to write directly to the  
> final stream file using the stream file APIs. You must also convert  
> the file structure and the file content to the correct code page prior  
> to writing to the stream file. Any encoding or encryption must be  
> performed after the code page conversion.
>
> Regards,
> Simon Coulter.
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