Re: Layout Hell.

From: Robert Wagner (robert.deletethis_at_wagner.net)
Date: 07/23/04 

Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 16:17:55 GMT

"William M. Klein" <wmklein@nospam.netcom.com> wrote:

>Robert,
> In this thread, Carol stated,
>
>"When you guys ask what compiler is used..
>
>Do you mean what machine dumped the data?
>Or what machine do I have that is reading the data."
>
>This lead some of us to believe that Carol neither has, nor has access to a
>COBOL compiler.

I acknowledged that, followed by suggestions of enlisting a Cobol programmer and
downloading a free compiler.

>She also stated,
>
>"I do not have access to the people at that company because of political
>stuff.
>All I have are 20 tapes and 20 file layouts and no experience.
>Plus I am supposed to represent our company as being real smart .tee hee."
>
>which makes it look as if anyone trying to get the original provider to do the
>conversion, is not providing an adequate solution.

You're right. I'd forgotten the part about "political stuff".

>This is why I (and possibly others) didn't think that your "COBOL program to do
>the conversion" solution - was a responsive solution. However, the thread has
>gone on long enough that you may have missed these "restrictions" on what
>solution would be viable.

A Cobol solution is easy because of packed decimal. Outside the mainframe world,
few languages can handle that format. It can be done with shifts or division by
256, but the code would be ugly and inappropriate to this Cobol newsgroup.

I used to bristle when people used the phrase 'Cobol file'. I'd say, 'Cobol
doesn't define unique data types, they are universal to all languages.' That
used to be true when mainframes ruled the land. In today's world of PCs and Unix
machines, Cobol is the last bastion of packed decimal.

The best solution would be an Excel plugin written in Cobol as a COM object.
That would be interesting. It would take (me) longer than four hours to write.

>"Robert Wagner" <robert.deletethis@wagner.net> wrote in message
>news:410042b5.93653409@news.optonline.net...
>> riplin@Azonic.co.nz (Richard) wrote:
>>
>> >robert.deletethis@wagner.net (Robert Wagner) wrote
>> >
>> >> >Could I have some help with this layout?
>> >> >I am new to the layout scene, but if I could see some real examples, I
>might
>> >> >get it. Then again, I might club myself with a shovel.
>> >> >Thank you.
>> >> >I just need to convert this file to Access or something normal.
>> >> >Do you have any thoughts?
>> >> >Thanks you.
>> >>
>> >> See one solution in a new thread -- Demo: convert Cobol file to csv
>> >
>> >I think that you _completely_ miss the point Robert.
>>
>> The point was to convert Carol's file to a format that Access (or Excel)
could
>> handle.
>>
>> I'm not into 'Zen wisdom' so just say what you think the point was. Hint: she
>> wasn't looking for an education in 'the idiosyncrasies of Cobol that only we
>> geniuses can understand'. She just wanted to get the damn file converted and
>> move on. I gave her and the numerous others who post similar queries a free
>tool
>> to get the job done. I spent four (billable) hours writing it. It worked the
>> third time. I love writing this type software.
>
>

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