Re: RE: page n of x -- RPG400-L

The answer to this predicament is to formulate the print lines to a physical 
file. With the 1st field representing a carraige (spelling?) control, and the 
second field being the actual print line.
The "1st pass" will be to read/interrogate the data and formulate the print 
lines TO THE PHYSICAL FILE, populating the first field accordingly, keeping a 
count of the TOTAL number of pages being printing, but populating the page 
number of the report WITHIN the physical file as "page 1 of" .... "page 2 of" 
etc.
The "2nd pass" is to read the phycial file, printing to a print file using the 
first field of the physical file as per a carraige (spelling?) control. 
Wherever "page x of " appears from the physical file, plug in the total number 
of pages in the appropriate positions, prior to printing.
This method interrogates the data ONCE, and works in COBOL, RPG, UNIX on 
whatever platform you would wish to consider.

>>> "Leland, David" <dleland@Harter.com> 09/07 10:49 AM >>>
The problem with the 2 pass solution is that, depending on the application,
you may not be able to guarantee that the data hasn't changed between the
running of the first and second passes.  So, how can you guarantee that the
number of pages to be printed will be the same.  Sure it's a simple
solution, but will it be correct?

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: jt [mailto:jt@ee.net] 
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2000 9:29 AM
To: RPG400-L@midrange.com 
Subject: RE: page n of x


John Hall,

I had created a test RPGIV to see how well John Carr's two-pass approach
would work.  I also had attempted to use an external indicator to suppress
printing on the first pass (I used QSYSPRT).  But as you said, it didn't
work in RPGIV (returned total pages of zero when indicator was off).

As far as overriding to NULL device, you can override to an OUTQ that is not
attached to a writer, and then delete the printout from the first pass.

I sure don't understand the benefit of using an API, just to get the total
pages to print.  It took me longer to write these posts, than it did to code
the test programs.  And the 2-pass solution _worked the first time_.  Can
you say that of the API approach?  Maybe I'm missing something.

jt

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-rpg400-l@midrange.com [mailto:owner-rpg400-l@midrange.com]On 
Behalf Of John Hall
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2000 8:48 AM
To: RPG400-L@midrange.com 
Subject: Re: page n of x


You can also use an external indicator on the printer file to suppress
output on the first pass.  This will not work in all situations.
Results will vary depending on RPG version and printer file type but if
you handle page breaks within the program you can call the program with
the external indicator off, return the total page count, then call the
program with the indicator on.  I think RPGIII will a program described
printer file will handle the overflow correctly regardless of the
external indicator but I couldn't get RPGIV with an external printer
file to update the INFDS with the external indicator off.

Another possibility might be to override the file to a NULL device -
anybody know how to do this ?

John Hall
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