Re: asdbget -- LINUX5250

On Wed, Feb 09, 2000 at 10:31:48AM -0500, pcunnane@learningco.com wrote:
> "I'e been working with Sean Porterfield (well, mostly not working, just 
> observing bugs really), expect a new release soon.  Right now there are some 
> character translation issues relating to not having an understanding of 
> translation maps like 5250 does, and an XML format issue which may not be an 
> issue but a Perl XML::Parser bug.  That and an issue with different releases 
> of OS/400 have different record lengths for DSPFFD output, which we use to 
> translate the file."
>      
>      Hmm.  Usually the best way around release inconsistencies like the 
>      DSPFFD problem you encountered is to use the system APIs to retrieve 
>      the same information.  The formats returned from these APIs are 
>      guaranteed not to change between OS/400 releases.
>      
>      Unfortunately, the API (QUSLFLD) writes its output to a user space, 
>      not to a file, so there is no (obvious) way to FTP the results back to 
>      the client.  Shame, because the APIs tend to be orders of magnitude 
>      faster than command-line equivalents.  I'll keep thinking about this 
>      one...
>      
> "Now that I've discouraged you from using it <g>, try it, see if it works, 
> and feedback is much appreciated."
>      
>      In XML_putc() the question is asked: /* What's &apos; ? */  I assume 
>      the answer is 'apostrophe', or single quote.  Also, would it be 

Duh, that was a silly brain fart.  You're right.

>      possible to get the program to prompt for a user ID and password?  I 
>      don't like the idea of my password being stored in the shell command 
>      history file.
>      
>      (I'd hack it myself, but my C code is horrible...)

Actually, I didn't intend to release it iuntil I had fixed that - it's even
worse that if the command is running, some other user can see the password
via 'ps'.  I ended up releasing it, though, since there was a lot of interest
in it.

My working copy allows you to pass the password via an environment variable,
or prompts you for it if you didn't supply it.  This will be in the next
release.

>      
>      ____________
>      Paul Cunnane
>      Mattel Interactive
> +---
> | This is the LINUX5250 Mailing List!
> | To submit a new message, send your mail to LINUX5250@midrange.com.
> | To subscribe to this list send email to LINUX5250-SUB@midrange.com.
> | To unsubscribe from this list send email to LINUX5250-UNSUB@midrange.com.
> | Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
> +---

+---
| This is the LINUX5250 Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to LINUX5250@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to LINUX5250-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to LINUX5250-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---