Re: Next release - Paste Overlay -- WDSCI-L

Rob,

My issue is not the +dlm+. It's the long list of column names. This are typically provided in an excel document.
I use the block copy all the time for things inside the editor.

Thanks,
Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: WDSCI-L [mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Robert Rogerson
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 3:32 PM
To: Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio Client for System i & iSeries
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] Next release - Paste Overlay

Greg,

If I understand your issue it is that you want to overlay the + dlm + on
each line.

Why not use block fill for this? Alt=r where you want the block to
start and Alt-r on the bottom right of the block and block fill with '+
dlm +'. This may not be exactly the way you want to do it but the
result is the same. I use this all the time. In fact I have a User Key
Action of Shft-Ctl-B to do my bloickFill.

Rob

On 6/18/2015 1:33 PM, Greg Wilburn wrote:

Maybe I'll do the RFE... My single biggest gripe with RDi is how differently it behaves compared to other Windows applications and SEU. ALT-Z (paste overlay) should perform exactly the same regardless of the source of the copied information, period.

I did copy/paste overlays all the time in SEU - it just all had to fit on the screen. For anyone writing text/csv files to the IFS or creating XLS files on the IFS with HSSFCGI, this is a common occurrence. Here is a prime example of creating a CSV file for export to an accounting system where the column headings have to match exactly... This is my subroutine for writing column headers... data lines are written the same. dlm=',' in this case. Inside RDi the "+dlm+" is "lined up" nice and neat. It completely eliminates typo's and human errors when the software company provides specs that you can just copy/paste into the source code.

begsr colhdr;

Data =
'OrderType' + dlm +
'OrderNumber' + dlm +
'CashAccount' + dlm +
'CustAccRef' + dlm +
'OrderWarehouse' + dlm +
'OrderDate' + dlm +
'OrderRequestedDate' + dlm +
'OrderPromisedDate' + dlm +
'PaymentInFull' + dlm +
'PaymentValue' + dlm +
'PaymentRef' + dlm +
'PaymentMethod' + dlm +
'CustomerOrderNumber' + dlm +
'OrderProcessing' + dlm +
'ExchangeRate' + dlm +
'DelPostalName' + dlm +
'DelAddressLine1' + dlm +
'DelAddressLine2' + dlm +
'DelAddressLine3' + dlm +
'DelAddressLine4' + dlm +
'DelCity' + dlm +
'DelCounty' + dlm +
'DelPostcode' + dlm +
'DelCountryCode' + dlm +
'DelContact' + dlm +
'DelTelephone' + dlm +
'DelFax' + dlm +
'DelEmail' + dlm +
'DelTaxNumber' + dlm +
'DelTaxCode' + dlm +
'InvPostalName' + dlm +
'InvAddressLine1' + dlm +
'InvAddressLine2' + dlm +
'InvAddressLine3' + dlm +
'InvAddressLine4' + dlm +
'InvCity' + dlm +
'InvCounty' + dlm +
'InvPostCode' + dlm +
'InvCountry' + dlm +
'LineRequestedDate' + dlm +
'LinePromisedDate' + dlm +
'LineType' + dlm +
'ProductCode' + dlm +
'ProductDescription' + dlm +
'Warehouse' + dlm +
'Quantity' + dlm +
'UnitPrice' + dlm +
'TaxCode' + dlm +
'TaxAmount' + dlm +
'DiscountPercent' + dlm +
'DiscountValue' + dlm +
'NominalCode' + dlm +
'CostCentre' + dlm +
'Department' + dlm +
'ShowOnPickingList' + dlm +
'ShowOnCustomerDocs' + dlm +
'AnalysisCodeName4' + dlm +
'AnalysisCodeValue4' + dlm +
'AnalysisCodeName5' + dlm +
'AnalysisCodeValue5';

len = %len(%trimr(data));
rc = writeline(fd: %addr(data): len);

endsr;

-----Original Message-----
From: WDSCI-L [mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of MichaelQuigley@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 11:18 AM
To: wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] Next release - Paste Overlay

"WDSCI-L" <wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on 06/18/2015 08:35:53 AM:

----- Message from Greg Wilburn <gwilburn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
on Wed, 17 Jun 2015 19:18:31 +0000 -----

To:

"'Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio Client
for System i & iSeries'" <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Subject:

Re: [WDSCI-L] Next release - Paste Overlay

I actually need to paste-overlay a block of text. This works when
it's copied from within the LPEX editor using ALT-R, but will not
work from a text editor.

I transposed my column headers into a single column in Excel, pasted
that into Notepad++. Tried to copy and paste-overlay in the source
editor (ALT-Z)... could not get that to work

So I pasted with CTRL-V at the bottom of my source, pressed CTRL-F5
to clear the messages, copied it again with ALT-R and paste-overlay
with ALT-Z. Whew! Surely there's a better way.

Yea, Alt+Z is designed to copy the marked block within LPEX to the current
position and there won't be a marked block since your source is MS-Excel
or Notepad++. The best I can suggest would be to get the desired text into
the clipboard by whatever means works for you. (Ctrl+C from MS-Excel
should work if it's all in a single column.)

Then highlight the target block in LPEX and press Ctrl+V to paste in your
text. This will overlay whatever you've highlighted--albeit in a single
stream. You may have to add or remove a few spaces after the pasted data
if you don't select the exact size to be overlaid. I believe it also
requires your LPEX Block preferences to be set to 'stream'. I guess you
could try 'rectangle' and see what kind of results you would get.

Not a perfect solution, but the best available that I can think of at this
time. I've only done this in my code to paste in comment data thus helping
document what the code is doing. I haven't seen what the benefit of
overlaying text from a spreadsheet, etc. would be. In my mind, insert the
new data and format what you need around it. But I'm sure it fits your
needs better to simply overlay the text you're bringing in.

If you can clearly state your case, it's a candidate for an RFE. But
there's never a guarantee that an RFE will become part of the product.
I've had RFE's marked as 'Uncommitted Candidates for years. IBM agrees it
would be useful, but they've got to pick and choose what they implement
with the resources available.