Re: Display file puzzlement

Simon

So true about how we learn - was just talking to a friend about my first programming instructor at the tech institute - made the point that no one would be standing over my shoulder to tell me what to do. Had better learn to hit the manuals and be able to find answers myself. Then he pointed at that 4-foot wide metal rack of System/38 manuals.

You might be FlyByNight, but I suspect we both fly-by-seat-of-pants a lot.

And after getting a job, I used to commute on the bus - often had a manual along for "light" reading. Of course, they were also great for helping me get some sleep!! Characterization is good but plots are weak in most IBM stuff!

Regards
Vern

At 01:51 AM 4/19/2008, you wrote:

On 19/04/2008, at 3:01 PM, John McKee wrote:
> Thanks Booth and Simon. When I had a class on this in 1983 (can't
> BELIEVE it
> was that long ago), either the keywords did not as yet exist, or
> teacher did
> not choose to present them.

ERRMSG (and ERRMSGID) has been around since at least 1986 and
probably earlier because it's not marked with change flags in my copy
of the S/38 Programming Reference Summary.

ERRSFL was introduced with OS/400 VRM220 in 1992.

> Every keyword I have pickup over the years since
> has been by reading a manual. It was a LOT easier to read a manual
> when it was
> printed. I was actually taking the things home to read.

As did most of us who wanted to learn. However that seems to be an
"old fogey" way of doing things. Seems to me the "newbies" don't want
to learn. They just want the answer--as evidenced by the ridiculous
number of questions on these lists that could easily be answered by
20 minutes research.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.
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