RE: MIDRANGE-L Digest V1 #720

I find the data area method is often dangerous.  You have to take care
when you update the data area in the job and that the job runs perfectly
every time.  Which it should.  But everyone is aware of the operational
problems that can arise:  upgrades, program changes, legacy code, all
mean that the data area method should be treated with caution and if you
are going to use it the document your data areas and what they do when
you document the code.  I am endlessly finding some data area that
contains a seemingly meaningless string of characters and no reference
in the customer's doco as to what the data area controls or contains.


James Turnbull

AS/Tech Consulting

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Joe Teff [SMTP:jteff19@IDT.NET]
        Sent:   Tuesday, 21 October 1997 10:58
        To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
        Subject:        Re: MIDRANGE-L Digest V1 #720

        > Folks,
        > 
        > In a message dated 97-10-18 13:31:56 EDT, you write:
        > 
        > > Use a data area. Load a value into this data area at the
start of your job
        > > and clear it out at the end. Any job can then check this
value to see if
        > > your job is running.
        > 
        > I've seen at least two responses on this, and have to disagree
with actually
        > placing a value in the data area.  If the system goes down or
the program
        > falls over, the value is left and the jobs looking for it
don't run -- even
        > though the program isn't running.  For this reason, I prefer
the allocation
        > method.
         
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