RE: data structure has no valid subfields

[Joel Fritz <JFritz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Agreed: a reference manual is not a teaching manual and vice versa.

I guess my disappointment with the output only fields is grounded in my own
agenda--to use a data structure that I didn't have to code each subfield in
to pass information back and forth between two programs. Just like one based
on a database file.  I can do it, now I'll have to get rid of the
underlines.  <g>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Buck Calabro [mailto:Buck.Calabro@commsoft.net]
> Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 3:50 PM
> To: rpg400-l@midrange.com
> Subject: RE: data structure has no valid subfields
>
>
> Joel said:
>
> >In section 2.2.5.2.20 Initializing Output/Input
> >Fields, it says: "Output-only fields are not part
> >of the input buffer unless they are part of a
> >subfile record, in which case they are saved
> >as if they were output/input fields."
> >
> >I'm not sure how someone would have hit on
> >that section.
>
> Having some vanishingly small experience writing manuals, I
> can only say
> that a reference manual can't be a good teacher AND a
> reference manual.  Nor
> can a teaching manual be a good reference.  The Application Display
> Programming guide is intended to be a teaching manual, and is
> meant to be
> read cover to cover.  The debate on the quality of the
> education is outside
> the scope of this note, but suffice it to say that many fine
> people have
> made a good living teaching the concepts laid out there.
>
> >Let me get this straight--Is it safe to say
> >that only file fields that make it to a
> >program's input buffer will show up in an
> >externally defined data structure?
>
> While not an expert, I would say that's been my experience.
>
> >Are there other situations like this one with
> >display files?
>
> None that immediately come to mind.
>
> >"Aberration" is a nice temperate term.
>
> My original "take" on this concept was a wild snort.  I think
> I said "If I
> wanted those fields in the input buffer I would have made
> them 'both' fields
> and DSPATR(PR)."
>
> >I'm assuming this is a holdover from
> >the days when bandwidth constraints
> >were a lot more important.
>
> I never got a good answer, alas.
>   --buck
>
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