WRKOBJ - Is this a bug or a feature?

["Steve Landess" <sjl_123@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This has always irritated me -

I am used to being able to specify a parameter value on the bottom line of an 
iSeries display produced by a command such as WRKSPLF and WRKUSRPRF.  

Let me explain.  For example:
 
If I type WRKSPLF SOMEUSER, then I will get a list of all spooled files for 
that user.  If I want to change the outq for several of these spooled files at 
once, I can put a 2 next to each spooled file that I want to change, then on 
the command line at the bottom of the WRKSPLF display type OUTQ(NEWOUTQ), press 
<Enter>, then all of the spooled files will be changed to the new output queue.

The same technique works for the WRKUSRPRF command - I can place a 2 beside 
several user ids, then type a parm value at the bottom of the screen, and it 
will change all of them when I press <Enter>.

The WRKOBJ screen it doesn't work this way.  

WRKOBJ allows you to place an 8 by an object to view the object description.  
The default (as shipped from IBM) for the DETAIL parm of the DSPOBJD command is 
*FULL.  When I put an 8 by several objects on the WRKOBJ screen at the same 
time, and then type DETAIL(*SERVICE) on the bottom line, I would expect to get 
a display of the *SERVICE object description of each object, one at a time, by 
pressing the <Enter> key.  Instead, it highlights the first 8 and I get the 
message "Parameter DETAIL specified more than once." on the message line at the 
bottom.

However, if I place an 8 by several objects on the WRKOBJ display, enter 
DETAIL(*SERVICE) on the bottom line, and press F4 to prompt, on the prompt 
screen it DOES fill in the value of *SERVICE for the DETAIL parm, but this 
requires me to press the <Enter> key twice for each object for which I want to 
see the *SERVICE object description.

What gives?  Why the inconsistency between the two commands?

I have never reported this to IBM - I figure that they'll just say, as JDE 
(PeopleSoft) always says, "That is a feature, NOT a bug".

Steve Landess
Austin, Texas
(512) 423-0935