Re: Continued CODE Issues

I've been using CODE DSU (CODE Designer if you prefer) for display and print
files for years. Its functionality is better than SDA and (especially!) RLU,
but its reliability is so-so. It's best if you use the version of CODE that
comes with Versions 6 and 7 of WDSCi, but what helps the most is to get the
patch for that version. You HAVE to download it manually from the IBM site, as
none of the WDSCi updaters deals with it. Most of you probably don't have it,
but you DO need it if you use DSU!

Even with that, I suggest changing the automatic checkpoints to every 5 minutes
(Tools/Settings - Saving).

Also, when DSU drops a record format, it's almost always because its syntax
checker decided there was something wrong with it at member open. If that
happens, the record format is still in your source! Get out of DSU without
saving the member, and you should be able to fix it up using an editor or
SDA/RLU/RDA or whatever to the point where you can use DSU again. Sometimes
the problem is only that you have a reference that isn't in your DSU library
list or something equally frustrating. This particular behavior of dropping
source that it doesn't like is a very bad decision (IMHO) that the CODE design
team made back when it was an OS/2 product, and they never changed it.
Hopefully the WDSCi screen designer will be less cavalier about throwing things
away that it doesn't like.

You're free to choose not to use it while you wait for the WDSCi designer, if
you think the learning curve is too steep for the benefit. After reading the
review that Joe Pluta wrote, I tend to think that you'll get up to speed with
the new tool much faster if you're already familiar with DSU, but that's just
my opinion. I like it better than SDA and RLU, but I know its warts and how to
avoid them. For me it's more productive; for you, it may not be.

Dave Shaw
Mohawk Industries