RE: Possible dumb question: ASCII, EBCDIC, or Unicode?

[Fred Kulack <kulack@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 09/03/2002 at 11:37:31 AM, java400-l-admin@midrange.com wrote:
So, by choosing ASCII as the platform default encoding, the iSeries JVM
writers have made it easy to interface with sockets, for example, but more
difficult to use native iSeries files with the java.io package.  This same
problem occurs with Readers and Writers which assume an ASCII default
encoding.  Hopefully, most people are using either the JDBC driver or the
Toolbox classes to deal with iSeries native files.
--- end of excerpt ---

Yes, that's correct. Easy to interface with sockets and the true stream
file file system.
This behavior and the portability enhancment was felt to be more
important/common.
And, even though you CAN open Native (QSYS) files with java.io, I wouldn't
recommend it.
The JDBC and/or Toolbox classes are the more correct way to go.

Other than the CCSID issue which can be fixed, QSYS files can be accessed
via stream oriented APIs,
but there are problems with it that become apparent with some in-depth
usage.
The problems relate to significantly different behavior WRT binary versus
text mode and
records and newline/padding/end of record issues.
Those files are not stream files, will never be stream files, and to access
them that way inserts
a big wedge of mapping/translation code that won't always 'get it right'
for what you want to do.
I.e. try writing a jpg file to a member. Bleah. 8-)




"The stuff we call "software" is not like anything that human society
  is used to thinking about. Software is something like a machine, and
  something like mathematics, and something like language, and
  something like thought, and art, and information...
  but software is not in fact any of those other things."
Bruce Sterling - The Hacker Crackdown

Fred A. Kulack - IBM eServer iSeries - Enterprise Application Solutions
ERP, Java DB2 access, Jdbc, JTA, etc...
IBM in Rochester, MN  (Phone: 507.253.5982   T/L 553-5982)
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