Make Mine MAPPER #13 -------------------- by Rob Haeuser You Too Can Survive Converting From 34 To 35 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Has your DP shop experienced some reluctance to make the plunge, so to speak, into that unknown abyss of the "New Look" of MAPPER level 35? There are probably a few good reasons why you feel like holding back on the conversion, not the least of which is the pending release of level 36. But wait! It is actually possible to make the conversion without too much anxiety! We have recently gone to level 35R1A at TDHS and survived. The predictions of "conversion chaos" can exceed the reality of the event. Naturally, with something this complex, errors will be made, but most are easily correctable. After all, isn't that what testing is all about? The trick is simply to remember to test everything in the known universe at least twice. Actually, it's more like "conversion confusion" than "conversion chaos". From a user's point of view, there are two major areas of change established by level 35. One is the new "look-and-feel" of the display. The other is the anxiously-awaited 256 character record (more on that later). Right off the bat, the control line is different! With only two tab positions instead of the usual six, it's really easy to get lost in the data and transmit an update before you realize where you are or what you just did. I can see that recovery tape spinning now. Requiring an imbedded SOE (start of entry) in the screen had saved me from quite a few unintended updates in the past. Remembering how to shift the display is easy enough: enter "Sn" or "S-n" (not to be confused with the search function), where "n" is the number of columns to shift. Hold characters is "HCn". Cancel HC by entering HC0. Holding lines is what gets me. Is it HL? No. Try DH (display headers). Actually it's very nice. It can be invoked even after you roll down into the report, and will continue to display headers after a shift, unlike level 34. I like to enter F0 to get the basic (zero) format back on display. It's easier (and fewer keystrokes) than shifting backwards, un-holding characters, etc. The function key bar shouldn't be all that confusing. Most MAPPER users have had to get real creative to be meaningful in just a few characters when designing report headers, so six characters for a function key description seems like a lot. It's when the function key definition area is blank; that's when it'll get you. F1 and F4 are terribly hard-coded in the old finger circuits. When they do nothing at all because they are not defined on the current function bar, it kind of leaves you with the feeling of being ignored. Heaven forbid they do anything other than Resume and Abort. An error message something like "Function key is not currently defined and therefore will DO NOTHING -please direct your attention to the little rectangles at the bottom of the screen and try to figure out which one to push" would be nice. But who bothers to read instructions? We're all guilty of expecting things to be intuitively obvious, I'm sure. The problems people seem to be having with MAPPER's new look- and-feel are not with the software, but with how data is presented and how screens behave. It's just too different for some folks, I guess. This is a problem that can be alleviated by allowing the user community access to a test level 35 for training purposes. It's amazing what a little bit of exposure can do to reduce anxiety. A very important command to remember is LOOKSW (look switch). If the current look really, really bothers you, LOOKSW will toggle the terminal to the alternate look. If you're in new, you get classic; if in classic, you get new. I say "you" but the look is in no way tied to your user-id. It is tied to the station, stored in the station table. If you switch the look, fail to switch it back, and then sign off, the next person using that terminal will see the look you left behind. This could be a source of irritation among co-workers. "Who used it last?" will be heard frequently, echoing down the halls, piercing even the thickest of office-cubical wall-partition devices. The "look mode" (new or classic) can get confusing when you execute runs. A run can be registered in one of three ways in regard to the look mode: it can be registered to display in the new look only; the classic look only; or to adapt to the current look mode of the terminal. The reserved word LOOK$ can be used to tell what look the terminal is currently displaying. The only problem is that if a run was executed in either forced-classic or forced-new look, as long as the run is running, even if in suspense, LOOK$ picks up the look of the run, which may be in conflict with what a user has selected via LOOKSW. At first, I found myself look-switching twice a lot, thinking I was in a look I really wasn't. A good rule of thumb: if you're in the old look and you expected otherwise, hit F1 to resume a possibly suspended run. A "classic-look" run may have stalled on a non-interim display and was just waiting for a resume so it could hit it's terminate command, ending the run and releasing the terminal to display the mode it was in prior to executing the run. And you thought classic-look/new-look would be simple. The second major area of change established in level 35 (and probably the most anxiously awaited) is support for a maximum record size of 256 characters. This is probably a more fundamental change than the look-and-feel, because MAPPER's underlying data- base structure changes in such a way as to make it literally the "point of no return". While it is true that Screen Control (SC) in 35 provides functionality not supported by level 34, that functionality is not a requirement for MAPPER to operate in classic look. However, you must be able to read data files... The conversion to 256 character records does not happen immediately upon bringing up 35, but only after a form type is created or expanded beyond 132 characters. Before this happens, a level 34 MAPPER can read recovery tapes created by 35. This might prove invaluable if, for some reason, an emergency rollback to level 34 was required. After you cross that 132 character boundary, a "no turning back" switch gets flipped. Level 34 can no longer read recovery tapes or data base files written by 35. How long you wait before allowing records beyond 132 characters is a question of how comfortable you are with level 35 in general. I recommend running it for a few weeks, with a few cycle/merges and purges in there for good measure, before going beyond 132. That "no turning back" switch gets flipped again between 35 and 36, which renders 34 and 36 incompatible from the start. I would guess that 36 starts off in the 256 character file format. Therefore, you kinda-sorta-hafta-probably-really-should pass through 35 to get to 36, so to speak. I have heard that going from 35 to 36 is more like installing a stability release, rather than a major level change. I sure hope so. There are many new pieces to MAPPER in level 35, and they are in lots of different places. Some old pieces are in new places, some new pieces are in old places, and some pieces have gone away altogether. Talk about a Coordinator's nightmare! It can lead to some confusion. These runs are usually executed from the "master" department. Remember to carry over any locally registered runs, which I'm sure you have. It helps to match your current master rid to the release tape to see what's new or different. Match in various ways to find out: I) What's completely new (the run name does not currently exist)? A) Is it registered to a completely new (currently non- existent) rid? These are OK. B) Registered to an existing rid? These are a pain. 1) Can the existing code be overlaid or moved to a different rid (preferable)? 2) Should the new code be put somewhere else? II) What already exists (duplicates an existing run name)? A) Is it an upgrade to the existing run, and if so, go with the upgrade or keep the old version? Go with the new one whenever possible. 1) Is it registered to the same rid as the older version? If so, great. If not, remember to delete the old version after a while, or you'll have all this ancient code piling up in un-registered and un-seen corners. B) Is it something completely different using an existing run name (this happened with KILL)? 1) Is it using the same rid (not likely)? 2) Which one should I rename? Probably the old one as the new one may be referenced in documentation by name. Once you've got all that figured out, it's time to execute the new code. Make sure all the on-line help is in place. Check all the graphics examples. Try out APT (Application Power Tools). As mentioned earlier, there are enhancements to the SC function for level 35 that require the run to be registered to force-display new look. I recommend that you follow Unisys' advice about locally modified runs and move them above mode 250, maybe even out of the 200-series altogether. In this way "release tape" runs won't overlay your local code. Believe me, it can sure simplify things. As you can see, the coordinator has a lot to think about. Fortunately, the lists are easy enough to create. What's more difficult is deciding what to do about the conflicts, such as IB and IIB mentioned above. Keep in mind that all of the experiences mentioned are with level 35R1A. It is possible to go from level 34 straight to 35R1B (or 35R1C if available), which includes numerous fixes to 35R1A. Needless to say, level 35 is a major new release for MAPPER over level 34, and establishes a direction soon to be continued in level 36. Once you shift from impulse engines to warp drive, you have to expect a little bit of acceleration shock. Just imagine the new worlds about to open up for exploration!