Re: RDI 9.5.0.2 cannot display Large variable like Green Screen... <shock>

In RDi's defense...you're kind of comparing apples and oranges..

With both STRDBG and Visual Studio, you're debugging a locally running
program. It's pretty easy to show any given area of memory...

With RDi, you're debugging a remotely running program; a much trickier
endeavor. The 1K default max seems pretty reasonable for most variables.
The 4K max doesn't seem to bad given that you can %SUBSTR() into any 4K
block you want.

I'd assume that like anything in IT, there were trade offs made.

Charles



On Thu, Jan 7, 2016 at 12:11 PM, Ken Killian <kkillian@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Buck,

Sure! I am using a vendor package to return Latitude/Longitude for fuel
stops. On the first release it was working. And on their second release it
is no longer working.

They put into an BIG xml into work field in the SQLRPGLE program. which I
could not examine in debug. I got tired of using Green-Screen debug, so I
redefine the big 32k field in a data-structure with an array 1,000
character dim(32)....

I don't like to touch/change vendor code.... (Whenever possible, because
it costly/timely to have to re-apply tons of customized changes.)
<frustration>

I got chewed out by a "Green Screener" for redefining my LARGE 32K - 9999k
(Plus) in a data-structure with an array. He asked me if I was "Stupid"
just use Eval MyVar:C 72000....

He show me in Green Screen debug, how it works....

So, I tried it in RDI, and it stopped me at 4,095 characters... <sad-face>

He said that is why he does not use that "fangled-New-PC-Crap", because
the Green-Screen SEU/Debug ****ALWAYS**** works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
<Disappointment smile>

And my Microsoft Developer co-worker was helping me trace down this vendor
error. And he said "What the Hell? Can't IBM doe Scroll-bars", Can you do a
substring of the data or something else....

I said "NO, 4,095 is the maximum size I can see, and could not scroll
through it." That is why I copy from Monitor view and paste in NotePad++,
so I can see all of the data.
Anyway, I shut down RDI and went to Green-Screen Debug so we could view
the data together that was at the very end of the 32k field in this case....

In my Web-service XML process, I *usually* output the XML to the IFS, so I
can very easily scroll through using RDI or Notepad. And then have the
program Delete/Cleanup the IFS temporary XML file. Or I refine the
work-field with an array, so I can easily examine all the data, when the
Vendor(s) give me CRAP... Like Drive "ABC" miles to your next stop. Whoops,
they gave me Alpha data instead of numeric data... <sigh>

Vendor tend to call me a liar, until I catch and prove to them it is their
code.... <frown>

Oh well, and limitation inside of RDI 9.5.0.2 debug versus Green Screen
debug does not help....

I use F10 to step over code, and occasionally, RDI in DEBUG stops except
F10 for Step-over... WTF? But if I use my mouse click on the step-over
icon, it works. It also works with the menu>run>step-Over (F10).
<Perplexed Look>

Yup, cannot duplicate it, so I CANNOT report it... <frustration>

I am surrounded by 12 Microsoft Developers, and that laugh at what they
call the "UNIVAC 400", because of their "perceived" ancient technology...
Our users call it the AS400, even though we do NOT own an "AS400", and IBM
stop making those approximately 17-year ago. (Soon anyway)

We run "IBM i" on the Power system!!! But, I get chewed out, because that
"confuses" the users/staff. And the documentation calls it the AS400 from
last century....
Oh well, out of my control... No wonder why they are putting in more
non-ibm servers, and loading up Microsoft. They brag how "cheap" they are
and with "RAID", it doesn't matter if 20 of them fail...

Breath.... Count to 10.... slowly... Eat the snickers bar.... Do NOT let
them get my goat... <LOL>

-Ken Killian-

-----Original Message-----
From: WDSCI-L [mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Buck
Calabro
Sent: Thursday, January 7, 2016 11:06 AM
To: wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] RDI 9.5.0.2 cannot display Large variable like
Green Screen... <shock>

On 1/7/2016 10:03 AM, Ken Killian wrote:

Since the monitor variable has no scroll bars.

Monitors View shows scroll bars for large variables for me.

I guess I am a rare developer that need to examine large data returned
from vendor web-services, and report back errors,

In my case, I tend to simply log the incoming data to a stream file.
This technique allows me to do a post-mortem on orders that are old: I
don't need to do a real time debug in order to see what is happening. I
can answer a question like 'What happened with order 11111 from last
week?' An additional benefit to having a log is being able to use grep and
sed to search and modify it if necessary.

Clearly, you find it valuable to be able to look at all of a very large
variable in debug. I don't, but I'd like to understand why you do, because
I'd like to learn to be better than I am today, and asking other
programmers how they do things is one way for me to learn. So I ask your
indulgence for a moment: could you explain how being able to see every
single character in a 32k block is useful to you?

Here's the thing. I see these blocks one of three ways:
1) I have to parse it into individual variables
2) I need to build it from individual variables
3) I need to pass it along intact to another function

When I'm debugging either of scenarios 1 or 2, I find that I only need to
look at the part of the variable around the current operation.
%substr(bigvar 50001 50) works great for this. When I'm debugging
scenario 3, I usually need to make sure I haven't accidentally translated
it from ASCII to EBCDIC or something like that, so peeping at the first few
bytes tends to tell me that.

So going back to the original post, I read this:

I had to go to Green-Screen Debug, to do "MyVariable:C 62000", and
that worked

I'd like to learn what you did with this. I can't imagine that you'd look
at each and every character from byte 1 through byte 62000. Were you
looking for something in particular? The last byte? The last non-blank
byte? A special 'eye-catcher'? I'm thinking that I'm not doing something
simple that I should know how to do...

--
--buck

Visit wiki.midrange.com and register for an account. Edit a page that
helps you, and because it's public, you'll help someone else, too!

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