RE: VAX FTP to AS/400 (via NT) with pack

Thanks for your feedback, Patrick.  Some comments/answers ...


>1. The VAX is an ASCII system. Was the data on the tape in ASCII? If it
>had packed fields my guess would be that the application on the VAX was
>Cobol and it was using normal Cobol Comp-3 type packing, which can be
>usually be processed on the AS/400.

Well, funny you should mention that.  I just spoke to the folks on the   
VAX end and they are 'taking
another look' at the original (tape) process.  Now they seem to think   
that <maybe> they were converting
the file to EBCDIC, which would explain why it worked fine via tape   
(wouldn't it?).

>2. After copying from the tape to the AS/400 was the data in ASCII or
>EBCDIC?

See #1 above - In thinking about this I presume it would have to have   
been EBCDIC
if we were simply copying the tape file to disk and processing, right?   
 Cpyfrmtap does
not assume ASCII source and translate, does it?

>3. If you are on V3R2, V3R7, V4R1 or later you have FTP on your AS/400.
>It just needs to be configured.

Will be on V3R2 in about a week or two.  However the thinking around here   
is to
keep the mission critical apps/data on the AS/400 as far from the general   
public
as possible.

>4. You are absolutely right that FTP does not handle any kind of numeric
>packing/unpacking. In binary mode it transfers the file image from one
>system to another. In ASCII mode with the AS/400 the AS/400 will perform
>ASCII to EBCDIC translation (mangling any packed numerics).

Mmm.  Sounds about right to me.  So now if I understand correctly, the   
packed
data if transferred without translation can be read from one system to   
another.
However the alphanumeric requires translation which, when done, mangles   
the
packed fields.  Hence the reason I can read one or the other depending on   
the
translation, but not both.  Do I understand that correctly?

>5. Is it possible to get the VAX system to unpack the numerics before
>sending the data? If so, you can transfer via FTP (or shared folder) and
>have the data translated to EBCDIC on the transfer or copy.

Well, yes.  However that would mean a separate front-end process for   
getting
the data to it's ultimate destination, and thus maintain multiple   
processes going
forward - something I'm not partial to.

Again, thanks for the feedback.  You've been quite helpful.  

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