[SYSTEM21] Re: The "standard" environment

[Sivalingam Ramamurthi <sivaram@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Chris,

You are spot on about the use of blank environment.

However I am eager to know where Geac is advocating the use of library
mapping and their "standards" (I am not aware of any such published
standards) for customised tasks.  I did not come across any such
references.  Can you please shed some light on this?

Regards,

Ram

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message: 1
date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 22:22:10 +0800
from: "Chris Tringham" <ctringham@xxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: [SYSTEM21]   The "standard" environment

Long ago, I was persuaded that the correct way to set up S21 was to leave
the blank environment totally alone.  Any changes (to library lists,
tasks, menus) would go into the appropriate environments.  This advice is
repeated in the "redbook" that came out 3-4 years ago.

Now, Geac are saying that this is not the way to go.  Instead, any new
tasks should be created in the blank environment and library lists should
be amended in the blank environment.  They say that as long as you use
library mapping and follow their standards for customised tasks everything

will be fine, and that this setup is easier to maintain and understand.
No need to define the applications in your "standard" environment because
you don't need them - you can use the blank environment.

There are some obvious benefits such as not needing to authorize users to
both the blank and standard environments.  However, I still have some
doubts, but I am not sure whether I have just been thoroughly
indoctrinated in the old way of thinking and just can't think straight.

For example, if I want to change certain jobs to run in different job
queues, I can change the task definition in the live and/or test
environment and it works fine, but I haven't touched the standard
definition.  If I make changes like that in the blank environment they may

get overwritten by a PTF or new release.  Or is there some smarter way to
achieve the same thing?

Any thoughts?  And have Geac announced this change in thinking somewhere
that I haven't noticed?