Re: Long display device names in BPCS -- BPCS-L

Hello,

Most current TCP/IP 5250 emulation software (Client Access Express, Rhumba
etc.) comes with a way to name the user's
device to a specific name. If you want more than one session, you configure
and save the settings for each of those sessions as an icon on your desktop
or in a folder. This keeps your session ID consistent each time
you use the emulator. The biggest problem with letting the system name your
session for TCP/IP is that the name changes each time a user signs
off and on - so your workstation settings do not get retained, and therefore
users will find things going to the wrong printer etc. if you have more than
one printer in your company. Whether you alter BPCS to accept 10 character
IDs or
not, this fact will not change. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you
use an
emulation software that provides consistent workstation IDs.

But, if you still want to change BPCS, V6 and higher does not use
Workstation Members
as work flow control in programs, as BPCS CD and older releases do (these
were removed since Unix can't use multi-membered files, and were replaced by
the Work File concept). Therefore, the responses from people
on BPCS CD for your particular question do not apply; the releases of
BPCS are too different in this design point to compare.

The workstation ID is used for printing
control mainly in V6. It is retrieved in various programs, and is also used
when passing programs to batch, and is identified by a 'Q' prefixed to the
name of the device. There would still be a lot of research involved in
changing this, as many programs throughout BPCS use this.
For example, if the workstation data area doesn't already
exist, it is built, and is updated or retrieved in several other programs -
all of these would also need to be updated to deal with the new name length.

Thanks,

Genyphyr Novak
SSA GT


----- Original Message -----
From: "Certz" <certz@americanmetalproducts.com>
To: "BPCS-L (E-mail)" <BPCS-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2002 7:55 PM
Subject: Long display device names in BPCS


> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> Hello all,
>
> We are on BPCS 6.0.02 PLF January Cumulative PTF with many BMR's on top of
> that.
>
> I know there is a restriction on the length of display device names to a
> length of 8.
>
> My boss has asked me to find a way to allow 10 character device names with
> the version of BPCS our company is currently on.
> I can not shorten the device name. That is not an option. (That is what I
am
> currently doing.)
> What would I neet to change in order to make the software work correctly?
>
> We are considering upgrading to V8. Does V8 support 10 character device
> names?
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Chris Ertz
>
>
> --
>
>
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