On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 10:51 AM, Rob Berendt <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Get over this fascination with outputting to spool files and converting
the spool files to a disk file and then processing that.
While I don't recommend scraping spooled output, I can confidently say
that for most folks who use it, it's not any particular fascination.
It's a way that they can easily understand and can easily implement
themselves. (Easier than system APIs, if they don't already have
experience or infrastructure for them.)
For many, it works well enough, especially at shops that don't stay up
to date with the operating system. So it's often the case that they
don't have to maintain the program for many years at a time, and even
if they do update the system, IBM might not have changed the spooled
output, or the program that they wrote might have enough robustness
that it can handle a change in output.
All that said, in this particular case I am surprised that anyone
recommended a spool-scraper because OP was already using an API-based
solution before he started this thread. And you didn't even have to
STFW (as Rob put it) to find one, because OP provided a link right
there in his post which opened this thread. It's a
cut-paste-and-compile deal too; practically no learning, thinking, or
understanding required.
The whole point of this thread was to see if there were any
*improvements* on OP's existing approach. A spool-scraper is
definitely not an improvement.
John Y.
midrange.com
