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  2. RPG400-L
  3. February 2007

Re: Display file dynamically



One solution is to use DSM, but we have found this cumbersome and
overloaded with API's
Hmmm... I didn't find it to be too difficult. Especially if you wrap the whole thing up in a service program where you can provide a simpler interface to the APIs. 


I recall a type of display file called a user defined display file - and
I am looking for someone who may have had experience using this.
It's very much like using the DSM APIs, except that instead of calling APIs, you send hex codes that mean the same thing. For example, instead of calling QsnClrScr(), you'd send x'0440' which is the CLEAR UNIT 5250 command.
Instead of calling QsnWrtDta, you'd code x'0411' followed by the 2 byte control character, followed by a combination of display parameters and orders. You'd send the SBA order (set buffer address, x'11) followed by a row and column, to tell the terminal where to put the output data in it's buffer. I.e. these are the screen coordinates at which the data will be printed. You'd follow that with an attribute, followed by the data to write, etc. You'd probably want an SOH order in there somewhere... it's been awhile, and I don't know if I remember the sequence exactly.
Basically, it amounts to the same thing you were doing with the APIs, except that you insert hex codes for everything instead of parameters and API calls. IMHO, it's a little more awkward (not less!) than the DSM APIs.
One big problem with this approach (as opposed to the APIs) is that it does no validation for you. IF you send invalid codes to the terminal, or you screw up and send something you weren't meaning to, you run the risk of crashing the terminal emulator. Or worse, locking up the workstation controller.
The DSM APIs at least provide some validation to protect against something like this happening.

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