Re: Converting to upper case

["David Morris" <dmorris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dan,

In my experience, it is better to centralize those types of functions in 
routines that you 
have control of.  That way if xlate does not do what you want, or a newer, 
better version 
comes out from IBM, you are in a position to take advantage of it.  I insist on 
this in all 
of our software, and some of this may sound extreme, but what you are doing is 
positioning 
yourself to build more reliable software that is easier to change and enhance.  
In this case 
it seems like you would classify the encapsulation of xlate as extreme, where I 
would rate it 
at good practice but not essential.

David Morris

>>> D.BALE@handleman.com 12/19/00 12:56PM >>>
David, thanks for the reply!

It seems to me that you can't get much more centralized than just using the
XLATE opcode.

What problems with the code page?  Do not the letters A-Z & a-z all translate
the same way regardless of code page?  And if not, XLATE can't handle that but
an API can?  Scary thought.  If you need a procedure to correct problems
associated with code pages, don't you still have a problem with constants
defined in the application?

I know you were just using the code page as an example, but I'm hard pressed
to think of another example where a straight "upper" or "lower" procedure
would offer more flexibility over XLATE.

It just seems to me that you're trying to fix a problem before one actually
exists.

Dan Bale
IT - AS/400
Handleman Company
248-362-4400  Ext. 4952



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