Thread

1. Subnovice question

   nhrcommu@rochester.rr.com — 2004-09-13T19:42:55Z

   Calling myself a novice would be inflating my skills/knowledge.
   
   My situation and following question:
   
   I have a customer (a Human Resources Department) that requires a
   web-based system for the purposes of allowing employees to self-enroll
   in their employee benefits of choice.  This will not be a problem for
   us.  Where we will soon be stumped are the following additional
   requirements:
   
   #1  That after completion of the web-based enrollment, we provide the
   customer's IT department with an EBCIDC file (mixed data types) that
   must be packed/zoned for certain of the data fields, according to their
   specs.  An example would be EMPLOYEE_NMBR, packed, field length
   9....0(precision), buffer length 5, buffer position 19.., etc.  After we
   deliver, their IT department will do their thing to update their system
   (AS400, DB2).  As near as I can understand, the customer's IT group is
   either too busy or too cranky to set up this "web-data collection" on
   their own.  Apparently there is a hornets nest of  intra-company
   politics  (HR vs IT).  I'd rather not be the one to kick the hive.
   
   #2  That we should expect 0 help from IT when it comes to this
   "packing/zoning" stuff.
   
   #3  That we leave JDBC/ODBC out of it.  IT has no interest.
   
   There are about 75 fields spread across 5 files, a few of which are CHAR
   and are not packed/zoned.
   
   We have located (but not purchased) commercial, desktop software that
   can get the data from ASCII to EBCIDC, but we are clueless on getting it
   packed/zoned correctly.  I'd rather not use a service if this particular
   wheel has already been invented.  We do NOT have access to a AS400/DB2
   system.
   
   I have a feeling this whole "packing" thing is left over from the old
   days and will probably save < 1 meg of space, but we do not have a
   choice.
   
   Any help..... clues.... suggestions?  Please use small words.  I'm the
   salesguy :•)
   
   Thanks!
   
   Mike
   
   
   

2. Re: Subnovice question

   Vincent Hikida <vhikida@inreach.com> — 2004-09-13T21:29:10Z

   You're right in that you are a subnovice. This list does not have any
   relationship to what you are asking except that it deals with a computer.
   :)
   
   Since I've been in this field almost 30 years I at least understand your
   question, although I haven't worked with packed decimal for ages.
   
   There must be a software package that both changes ASCII to EBCDIC and
   also will put numbers in packed decimal format. I think you should be able
   to find software on the web and talk to their sales or technical person.
   
   If you can't find a package, then you could use a cobol programmer who
   works on an IBM mainframe. It's simple to do this in Cobol, you just move
   number in a regular numeric field to a number in comp-3 format and its
   packed in one cobol command:
   
      MOVE X TO X-COMP3.
   
   The algorithm for changing a numeric field to packed is pretty simple if
   you don't have cobol on an IBM mainframe. I don't remember the exact rules
   but it takes a programmer about 5 minutes to understand the rules.
   Changing to packed decimal cuts down the space requirements by almost 50%.
   
   
   > Calling myself a novice would be inflating my skills/knowledge.
   >
   > My situation and following question:
   >
   > I have a customer (a Human Resources Department) that requires a
   > web-based system for the purposes of allowing employees to self-enroll
   > in their employee benefits of choice.  This will not be a problem for
   > us.  Where we will soon be stumped are the following additional
   > requirements:
   >
   > #1  That after completion of the web-based enrollment, we provide the
   > customer's IT department with an EBCIDC file (mixed data types) that
   > must be packed/zoned for certain of the data fields, according to their
   > specs.  An example would be EMPLOYEE_NMBR, packed, field length
   > 9....0(precision), buffer length 5, buffer position 19.., etc.  After we
   > deliver, their IT department will do their thing to update their system
   > (AS400, DB2).  As near as I can understand, the customer's IT group is
   > either too busy or too cranky to set up this "web-data collection" on
   > their own.  Apparently there is a hornets nest of  intra-company
   > politics  (HR vs IT).  I'd rather not be the one to kick the hive.
   >
   > #2  That we should expect 0 help from IT when it comes to this
   > "packing/zoning" stuff.
   >
   > #3  That we leave JDBC/ODBC out of it.  IT has no interest.
   >
   > There are about 75 fields spread across 5 files, a few of which are CHAR
   > and are not packed/zoned.
   >
   > We have located (but not purchased) commercial, desktop software that
   > can get the data from ASCII to EBCIDC, but we are clueless on getting it
   > packed/zoned correctly.  I'd rather not use a service if this particular
   > wheel has already been invented.  We do NOT have access to a AS400/DB2
   > system.
   >
   > I have a feeling this whole "packing" thing is left over from the old
   > days and will probably save < 1 meg of space, but we do not have a
   > choice.
   >
   > Any help..... clues.... suggestions?  Please use small words.  I'm the
   > salesguy :•)
   >
   > Thanks!
   >
   > Mike
   >
   >
   > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
   > TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command
   >     (send "unregister YourEmailAddressHere" to majordomo@postgresql.org)
   >
   
   
   
   

3. Re: Subnovice question

   ghaverla@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca — 2004-09-13T21:55:56Z

   On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 vhikida@inreach.com wrote:
   
   > There must be a software package that both changes ASCII to EBCDIC and
   > also will put numbers in packed decimal format. I think you should be able
   > to find software on the web and talk to their sales or technical person.
   [ snip (too much, caught packed decimals stuff too ]
   
   At CPAN, we have Convert-EBCDIC which should do the ASCII/EBCDIC
   stuff.  Another module is Convert::IBM390, which should handle
   packed decimals.  Searching for "packed decimal" at perlmonks.org
   turned up a few things, including another search term (COMP-3).
   
   The following web site was mentioned in the COMP-3 discussion, and
   may be of interest:
    http://digilander.libero.it/foxes/Packed_Decimal.htm
   
   Gord
   
   
   

4. Re: Subnovice question

   Mitch Pirtle <mitch.pirtle@gmail.com> — 2004-09-14T00:47:22Z

   On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 14:29:10 -0700 (PDT), vhikida@inreach.com
   <vhikida@inreach.com> wrote:
   >
   >    MOVE X TO X-COMP3.
   
   You know, viewing these exact characters caused me to violently slam
   my laptop shut and run screaming from the house...
   
   (Sorry, off-topic but simply uncontrollable)
   
   -- Mitch