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Consider FOO, a note file. Each record contains one 35-character "segment" of a "note"; each customer can have up to 10 separate notes, each with up to 100 segments.
Consider BAR, another note file. Each record is to contain all the notes for a particular customer, in a VARLEN field with a maximum capacity of just under 16k.
Now consider converting FOO to BAR. We go through the records of FOO, stringing together the "segments," separated by spaces, with a line break between "notes." Clearly a situation ideally suited for The Cycle, and seemingly also suited for the use of control level breaks.
Unfortunately, none of the permutations I tried using level breaks generated the correct sequence of segments, spaces, and line breaks. I finally threw out the I-specs defining the level breaks, and (except for a few statements at the end with LR as their level indicator, to stick the last buffer's worth of notes into the last record, and write it) replace all the level-break-sensing code with IF and SELECT blocks.
To those Cycle-haters who regard the whole "control level" business as a total waste of time, I agree. But note that the program in question is still a Cycle program, and there's no reason in the world to throw out The Cycle just because trying to make control level breaks do what you want them to do is harder than coding your own logic.
-- JHHL
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