Aurora, thank you for your reply. My responses are interspersed below. On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 11:22:32 -0000, you wrote:
>Hi Clark, > >A bit late jumping on the band wagon, but I have been out of the office, >so throwing in my twopence with only 3 weeks' lag... > >You have already had apologies for what you feel is user-unfriendliness >from Compuware, so I shall just try and give a few practical hints / >answers on your concerns... > >In order to get to product manuals, simply go to >http://frontline.compuware.com/ - as mentioned, you can get a >registration userid free - and by the way, now you have to get a userid >for most parts of the IBM website too (if you do not know your site ID, >you can email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and ask them to provide you with >it). If I can get a registration user-id as an independent contractor, that is good news. I would then have the same ability to download Compuware manuals that I have for the IBM manuals. > >You can then navigate to the File-aid v. 4.9 documentation page: >File-Aid for MVS's is at >http://frontline.compuware.com/products/fa/doc/17869.asp - you can find >the Compare and XREF documented in the Online Reference manual, which >you can download in .pdf format, or browse online via BookManager or >HTML. > >Now, as for the error you get, XREF is a cross reference between each >data file record and the corresponding layout that you want File-AID to >use. > >The error you get, E729 means simply what it says: the COBOL layout that >you are using, is too short for the record length. You need to choose >another record layout from your copy-book, the one which actually >matches the length of the multi-format record you are using. > >File-AID expects data you enter to conform to the format of each field >in the layout. File-aid expects the length of the record to conform only for the compare operation. I used the same XREF for browsing with no problem. Since the compare was for selected fields only, the restricdtion is irrational. If the compare operation must have full description, then I should be able to add filler at the end or otherwise concatenate descriptions. A more rational program response would be to display the undefined portion of the record in HEX. To force hexadecimal display for the entire record just because the description is 4 bytes short is user-surly and serves no purpose. With most mult-format records there may well be portions at the end that are irrelevant and a filler should not be required. The field descriptions in this case reflected the actual file. The COBOL descriptions available without creating new members did not allow for the 4 bytes at the end of the detail record. > >Numeric fields (Packed, display, binary floating point) are all entered >using standard decimal digits (0-9) and decimal points (leading zeroes >are not needed). >Character fields are interpreted as any case. Embedded blanks are not >allowed in character data. If you need to test for exact case you must >issue the CAPS OFF command, then enter your data value. File-AID >defaults to CAPS ON and translates any entered lowercase characters to >uppercase when you press Enter. During XREF processing, File- AID >matches your value in upper, lower, or mixed case (CAPS ON setting) or >exact case (CAPS OFF). >If you need to enter a hex value in a character field, first you must >change the format of the field with the DISPLAY command. For example: >DISPLAY 5 HEX displays field number 5 in HEX. > >Please feel free to contact me offline, or your local friendly Compuware >rep, for further help or information. > >HTH. > >ciao! > >Aurora Emanuela Dell'Anno >Compuware Ltd. >Systems Engineer, Mainframe pre-Sales Clark Morris, cfmpublic at ns dot sympatico dot ca ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
