400 report to PC file -- MIDRANGE-L

This is so embarrassing & maybe even funny after I get past the crisis.

When we copy a spool file into a source file, how do we get the full width of 
the spool file report without anything chopping off?  No, I have not yet 
looked at the archives, but I do plan to test David's new access.

I have been nagging management for an eternity to get one of those software 
packages that sends 400 data to PC & to web & etc. because it seems to me 
that we have several people working full time transcribing stuff between 
different computers & using old fashioned scissors to get reports to 
photocopy machine to fax machine.

So a few years ago I managed to sell them on using Monarch to send year end & 
physical inventory reports via e-mail attachment to our auditors, and lots of 
people were happy with this.  Now next week is physical inventory & fiscal 
year end & come to find out they can't get Monarch to work.

Hey says I, Monarch comes with tech support & their web site is 
www.datawatch.com in case the phone #s in our ancient manual have changed, 
since we got this on Win 3.1 ... the PC has gone to 95 then 98 & had some 
hard disk crash & all the hardware replaced over time & it used to talk to 
the 400 via 5250 emulation & now via some NT WAN which fakes out the 400 into 
thinking it is a local work station controller & also the 400 is a different 
box serial # & OS upgraded, so it only stands to reason that we need some 
kind of upgrade to our Monarch.

But they say we have left it too late to resolve this.
Well says I, you may be judging Monarch by certain other outfits whose tech 
support is in name only, there are other places with excellent tech support 
like IBM ASNA & KSAI.

Bottom line, I get to write some software that does what Monarch does, and 
they need it yesterday.

I created a *SRC file 132 bytes wide & into a member of it, I imported a test 
spool report, and it was looking good except I only got the first 120 
characters because of IBM tracking last time some line created or changed.  
Ok, no problem, I thought.
I created a *SRC file 144 bytes wide (132 + allow 12 for the missing after 
120) & into a member of it, I imported a test spool report, and it was 
looking good except I only got the first 120 characters of each line.  For 
software type I used XPERIMENT because I did not want to use some official 
IBM source type that is like 80 or 96 wide & I do not know how to look at 
what all there in sizes to find goodies like OCL36 is 120 wide, but I need 
more than that.

So one question is whether when we import a spool file into a source file if 
120 is the ceiling, or if there is some simple thing I have overlooked to get 
it all in there for 132 print positions & also we have some 15 to inch 198 
character reports.

For my next experiment, I took one of the reports they were interested in & 
copied the program, substituting a 132 wide data file (I had to define it 
with DDS) for the printer file & found I could not use overflow or vertical 
spacing, but I could insert blank lines, which is something lost by the spool 
file approach.  This is working but it needs some packaging so that every 
time they run it - data to a different member name.  Also I want to find out 
if it is Ok with them that the page headers file only one time, then we have 
10,000 file lines of detail report until final totals.

My PC buddy will next see if he can get the files I created to our auditors & 
if the non-Monarch format is satisfactory to them.  He has transmitted other 
400 files at other times to various places, but I do not know the 
circumstances or the tools he is using.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)
AS/400 Data Manager & Programmer for BPCS 405 CD Rel-02 mixed mode (twinax 
interactive & batch) @ http://www.cen-elec.com Central Industries of 
Indiana--->Quality manufacturer of wire harnesses and electrical 
sub-assemblies - fax # 812-424-6838

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