autoshuffle and COPY -- a cautionary tale...

[Mike Schwartz-PC Support & Services]

> 
> Took me almost *three hours* to figure out that the problem is that
> COPY copies on an ordinal field basis, skipping undefined fields.  If
> you have matched files, and you add fields in the middle of one, MAKE
> SURE you add them to the other.
> 
> Jay R. Ashworth

	This is a good reason to use a qualifier file as the temporary file.
If anybody chances a field in the main file, then all the qualifier fields
automatically get shuffled to match.  

	<sympathy mode on> I often get called to look at filePro code that
was written by programmers who have moved on.  (Have Cessna, will travel...)
A lot of it was written many years ago by people doing the same thing.
<sympathy mode off>

	So, I've learned to grep the first few lines of each map, then print
them, so that I can try to detect this same problem.  Having just the first
few fields of each map usually gives me a quick reference that is handy to
have in my other work when I'm debugging a strange system.

	<joke mode on> I reason that if I can't figure out what a file does
by looking at the first 5 lines, then it probably isn't all that important!
<joke mode off>     

	Actually, now that I bought a Piper Cherokee, I'm going to have to
change that Cessna by-line on my business cards...

*** Mike Schwartz ***
*** PC Support & Services, Appleton, WI ***