Re: Generic spooled file concept

Tom Liotta wrote:

I'm not looking for serious technical info on this since I can do
most of the stuff on i that I want to do. What I'm looking for is
some illumination. Just trying to understand mind-sets.

I regularly see requests about how to move or copy or display (or whatever) "our AS/400 reports" on Windows PCs. I'm pretty sure most
of us have seen related requests.

How often do requests happen like "How can I move (or copy or display
or whatever) my Windows spooled files on another PC (or wherever)?"

I don't think I've personally ever seen a request for anything like
what I see for spooled files from AS/400s.

Sure, everybody wants PDFs from everything; but, for those, it
doesn't really matter what system is involved. I'm interested in
hearing about requests for the actual spooled files themselves.

<<SNIP>>

If you are talking about users, then I can mostly only groan, with regard to your question. When a user spends fifteen minutes or perhaps even hours, just to insert tabs or spaces to realign variable pitch font text within a document to achieve the aligned appearance of its original fixed font text, there is no divining what they want. FWiW that is the primary reason that I have heard such requests, because their copy\paste or transfer is not aligned as they had seen it in the SPLF [or does not appear as when they spool it from a PC tool which would accomplish the alignment irrespective of font]. The number of times I have received such a document is staggering; a document where correcting an embedded report by changing the text to be in its original fixed font, the report was then so radically changed as to no longer be consumable -- thus only its rendering as variable font text in the document viewer would suffice as a somewhat consumable form.

<humor> For anything else, what they want is often beyond my understanding; at least without first having consumed so much alcohol that I might pass out, versus the intended effect of finally becoming so feeble minded ;-) that I might actually experience an epiphany. </humor>