Re: How NOT to use an API on a previous release

[James Lampert <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Gibbs wrote:

> Sadly no.
>
> In these situations I've always made a stand alone program that 
> retrieves the information ... and only call that program _IF_ the 
> release I'm running on supports that particular API.

One of the few situations where OPM is actually better.

Not only do we have products that avoid system calls on releases that 
don't support them; they also avoid MI instructions where they don't exist.

Of course, I suppose providing a built-in mechanism for graceful 
degradation wouldn't be in IBM's best interest, as it would slow down 
the upgrade treadmill.