TechTalk: Help Key Support and Other DDS Mysterie

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You were a real whiz on the System/36. Now you are on the AS/400 and trying to write native programs. How do you code support for the Help key in DDS? How do you implement screen overrides? The answer is, you probably already know how!

As a regular reader of Midrange Computing you learned all about these techniques and how to code the necessary $SFGR S and D specs required. "How does this help me with the DDS?" you ask. Simply, the AS/400 will convert your most complicated $SFGR specifications to native DDS for you automatically!

FORMAT compiles in the S/36 Environment generate intermediate DDS for creation of the display file. Put another way, the AS/400 does not know how to make a display file from S and D specifications. That is why it generates the DDS first.

The best way to control the creation of the DDS is by using the CRTS36DSPF (Create System/36 Display File) command. By using the GENOPT(*CONVERT) option and specifying a DDS source file and member name on the additional parameters screen, native DDS will be generated in the place you choose.

Using this technique I have learned the syntax for coding Help support in DDS, MIC error message coding and a lot of other important techniques for which the DDS Reference has few examples or none.

Steven Kontos Woodbury, New York

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