RE: New Product Announcement - Reorg without locking files

Dean:

Thanks for the feedback.  I will take a look at my site and see what I can
do to address your concerns.

But to address your specific points now...

1. Re "How does one properly reorganize a file without locking it?"

In a nutshell, you move the records around without locking the file.  When
you're done moving them around all the live records are at the front and all
the deleted records are at the back.  You now have your database pages
filled up nicely so performance improves, but you still have wasted space.
So, you then 'chop off' the file space with all the deleted records.  This
step does require an exclusive lock on the file, since you wouldn't want
someone adding a new record at the end of the file while the 'chopping off'
is in progress.  But, this step is very quick - from a few seconds to a
couple minutes as contrasted with a 30 hour exclusive lock for a RGZPFM.
The details are obviously proprietary, and the real trick during the reorg
step is to be able to do this without killing other work on the system
(there's a lot of access path overhead when you're moving the records
around).  To really answer the question of "how", you should try it out.  It
really is pretty cool, if I do say so myself...

Re the web site being 'far from informative' - as a technical person, I
understand your concern, but I can't give away too much detail on the site
since both customers and potential competitors can see it.  It's like a
resume - you should provide just enough information to make the phone ring,
but not so much that you scare somebody away or give away the store.  But -
you do have a good point.  I have added some further details regarding the
ReorgWizard.  I'd like to know what you think.  Hopefully this makes it
clearer.  You can access it at http://www.arctools.com/reorgwizard.htm .

2. Re - "The 'still not convinced' section points only to other ARCTOOLS
customers."  Point well taken.  That page was cloned from the ARCTOOLS page
and I didn't change it.  I do have ReorgWizard customers out there, although
not as many as ARCTOOLS.  I also have a bunch of trials out there, so
hopefully it won't take too long to get a nice long list of customers.  I
will fix the web page in the mean time.

3.  Re the customer quotes - I will revisit these quotes and contact the
folks involved, asking if they mind having their names and/or company names
listed.  I have been collecting other quotes over the last year or two and
need to refresh this anyway.  Re the 'independent software reviewers' -
those reviews are directly linked from my web site.  They came from iSeries
Magazine Product Spotlight (aka eServer Magazine iSeries Edition) and
www.400times.co.uk  .  I'm collecting ReorgWizard comments now.

Thanks again for the feedback.  My first reaction was 'wow... tough crowd',
but after reading through your comments my reaction changed to 'wow... he
really spent some time looking at this'.

DAVE

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Go... FASTER!  Without an upgrade!  With ARCTOOLS/400(tm)
http://www.arctools.com
info@arctools.com 
DCSoftware, Inc.
Ph: (508) 435-8243
Fax: (508) 435-4498
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 -----Original Message-----
From:   DAsmussen@aol.com [mailto:DAsmussen@aol.com] 
Sent:   Monday, February 10, 2003 2:27 AM
To:     bpcs-l@midrange.com
Subject:        Re: New Product Announcement - Reorg without locking files

Dear Mr. Shea,

While your mentioned web site was interesting, it was far from informative 
(other than purveying the knowledge of how to purchase your products).  How,

exactly, does one properly reorganize a physical file on the AS/400 "without

locking the files"?

Your "Still Not Convinced?" section pointed only to other "ArcTools" 
customers, and the comments from ALL of those references were vague AT BEST.

"Independent Software Reviewer"?  "Manager, Manufacturing Information 
Services, medical devices"?  "Partner, International Consulting Firm"?  I 
could go on, but the lack of a single person putting their name to a quote 
speaks for itself.

I believe that we can all agree that your archiving tool is a fine product.

I also believe that those of us that understand the AS/400 are going to need

more than the vague word of "AS/400 Consultant" to convince us that you can 
reorganize files without locking the system, unless you plan on lowering our

security levels...

Regards,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist -- the 
taxidermist leaves the hide." -- Mortimer Caplin