WDSC/Lpex macros vs SEU (was: Debug in WDSC)

(I used to write ReXX macros under MVS and never understood why

midrange systems couldn't do that.)

Okay, I gotta ask... Why can't SEU do that? I.e., what "macros" would you like in SEU that can't be done with ReXX? (Not that anyone would _want_ to.)

Here's an example I wanted to use yesterday.  I'm fiddling with a
CPYFRMIMPF, and I have DDS that has numeric fields in it.  That DDS also
specifies EDTCDE(whatever).  For my tinkering purposes, I need another
version of that file's DDS where every field is character.

I can pretty easily change out all the spots that say '5p 0' or '10s 0',
making them '5a  ' and '10a  ', but I can't readily delete the lines
that say EDTCDE(whatever).  I say 'pretty easily' although it takes
several passes to change P to A and S to A, restricting by column and
remembering to hide comment lines <g>.

A ReXX macro does all of that in one pass.  Now, as the 'real' DDS
changes (new fields, different sizes and such), I run my macro over it

to translate it into the version that's character-only.

Since this is the WDSC list, discussion of how to do this in SEU is better in Midrange_L. But because it started with an idea like "WDSC can do it but SEU can't", I have to say at least that I don't see why this can't be implemented as a user-defined line command in SEU. (Maybe semantically that means it's not a 'macro'?)

And I'm not at all sure that learning how to do it in WDSC is easier than learning the SEU technique. If one or two 'good' ways to do it in WDSC were posted, I think it would be very interesting to see them compared to an SEU solution. If nothing else, it could show green-screen developers a clearly mapped transition from one to the other. WDSC is clearly the future and transition should be addressed.

Here's how I did it in Code, from start to finish:

alt-f, N, (new file c:\buck\macros\toalpha.lx)

/* Convert DDS fields from numeric to character */

'top'

do until 1 <> 1

'extract class'
'extract content'

/* skip comments */
  if pos('COMMENT', class) = 0 then do
    'extract element'

    /* set to char */
    NewContent = substr(content, 1, 34) || '   ' || substr(content, 38)
    'set content 'strip(NewContent, 't')
    call ExitTest

    /* get rid of EDTxxx */
    if pos('EDT', content) <> 0 then do
      'delete'
      call ExitTest
    end

  end

'next'
call ExitTest

end

ExitTest:
  'extract element'
  'extract elements'
  if element >= elements then do
    exit
  end
  return

ctrl-s (save)
alt-left (switch window to DDS)
<escape> (to get to command line)
extras on c:\buck\macros (if not in profile.lx)
macro toalpha

==========

  --buck