[Info-vax] RMS internals?

[norm.raphael at metso.com]

There is a program (Basic, IIRC) to read the "Print File Format" files and 
insert 
the <CR><LF><FF> characters into output lines, record by record, so the 
output 
can be "exported."  I modified it to create a crude HTM report file for 
copying to 
a Windows server.


"P. Sture" <paul.nospam at sture.ch> 
Sent by: info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com
08/10/2009 11:57 AM
Please respond to
"comp.os.vms to email gateway" <info-vax at rbnsn.com>


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Subject
Re: [Info-vax] RMS internals?






In article <howard-7A9971.14031208082009 at news.newsguy.com>,
 Howard S Shubs <howard at shubs.net> wrote:

> In article <4a7dbb58$0$295$14726298 at news.sunsite.dk>,
>  Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> 
> > In that case it is not a really a valid file.
> 
> I'm not sure how you arrive at this result.  A file can have any record. 
 
> RMS asserts limits which other operating systems do not have to adhere 
> to.  So I've written code which "deals" with RMS' limits.
> 
> 
> > See:
> >    
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/731final/4523/4523pro_006.html#fab_mrs
> 
> Yes, BTDT.  Those are RMS-specific limits.  If the file had been 
> generated on VMS, maybe they'd be relevant.  Since the file was 
> generated elsewhere, they're not.  This is a case of VMS being "too 
> nice" and getting in my way.  It happens on occasion.

Before VMS COBOL had the ability to produce non-VFC REPORT files, it 
used the fixed part of the record to insert line and form feeds.  This 
was fine if you were outputting to a VMS printer, but not if you wanted 
to transfer the file to a PC and print from there.

I did a similar exercise with those files in the early 1990s, reading by 
block and unpacking the records myself.  IIRC the only problem I ran 
into was that I hadn't realised that records with an odd number of bytes 
were padded with a null filler byte, presumably so that each record 
started on a word boundary.

-- 
Paul Sture
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