RE: Stupid question of the century

Let me get this straight.

I am an RPG program that has an internally described file open that the
operating system has checked has the same format level ID as the file I was
compiled against.

And you now want to change that file so that the program will either A) Fall
over in a heap on the next read or write operation or B) continue to process
as normal but silently corrupt data all over the place.

I really would advise your bosses, bosses that want he wants is a bad
idea!!!!

Can we have the context of why your boss wants this? There might be a less
risky solution.

That said I'll be shocked if anyone knows how to do want you need :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alan Shore
Sent: 09 May 2009 18:18
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Stupid question of the century

Hi guys
I've just been asked the following question by my boss's boss
Is there anyway to add new fields (columns) "on the fly" to an existing
file, without having an exclusive lock on that file.
In other words, the file is still being used while the field is added
I know that chgpf is out of the question (unless someone proves me wrong).
I know that SQL is also out of the question (ALTER TABLE x ADD EXTRAFIELD
DEC(7, 2) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0) - again unless someone proves me wrong
If anyone knows of any way, any language, any procedure, any function to
achieve this, please drop me a line.

Thanks in advance


Alan Shore
Programmer/Analyst, Distribution
E:AShore@xxxxxxxxxxx
P:(631) 200-5019
C:(631) 880-8640
"If you're going through Hell, keep going" - Winston Churchill