System date behavior wish (GRX)

[Chris Sellitto]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> filepro-list-bounces+sellich=guaranteedreturns.com at lists.celestial.com
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces+sellich=guaranteedreturns.com at lis
> ts.celesti
> al.com]On Behalf Of Bob Stockler
> Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 5:17 PM
> To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> Subject: Re: System date behavior wish (GRX)
> 
> 
> Chris Sellitto wrote (on Mon, Feb 12, 2007 at 04:26:19PM -0500):
> 
> | > -----Original Message-----
> | > From:
> | > 
> filepro-list-bounces+sellich=guaranteedreturns.com at lists.celestial.com
> | > [mailto:filepro-list-bounces+sellich=guaranteedreturns.com at lis
> | > ts.celesti
> | > al.com]On Behalf Of Bob Stockler
> | > Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 12:55 PM
> | > To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> | > Subject: Re: System date behavior wish (GRX)
> | > 
> | > 
> | > Chris Sellitto wrote (on Mon, Feb 12, 2007 at 09:19:45AM -0500):
> | > 
> | > | I don't know (or remember) if this topic has been 
> broached in the
> | > | past, but here goes.  I was wondering how difficult it 
> would be to
> | > | have the @system date fields retain their values upon 
> copying new
> | > | records.  I know it would be just as easy carrying a 
> date field on
> | > | the record, but I feel this is an inefficient way of 
> doing things,
> | > | not to mention a waste of field space.  We archive our 
> data here on
> | > | a regular basis, and having this option would be great. 
>  Maybe have
> | > | a new flag on the copy command that would instruct filePro to
> | > | retain its system dates (@cd, @ud, @bd).
> | > 
> | > A Work-A-Round until you get your wish . . .
> | > 
> | > Creat two Alien filePro Files, one with its "real file" the "key"
> | > file from which you're archiving, the other's "real file" being
> | > the "key" file of the file to which you're archiving.
> | > 
> | > The file layouts (map files) would have field #1 length 
> 20, edit *,
> | > for filePro's info, with the rest of the map similar to the fields
> | > in the source and destination files.
> | > 
> | > Do your archiving using these Alien files.
> | > 
> | > Copy the record to be archived, intact, from the source file to
> | > the archive file (binary filePro File I/0 is good for this).
> | > 
> | > Make all characters in Field #1 of the source file record be equal
> | > to chr("0") (ie: NUL), then make all characters in the balance of
> | > that record be equal to " ") (ie: Space), then write it.
> | > 
> | > Run "freechain" on the source file.  Presumeably, you'll 
> be archiving
> | > only active (used) records, so it's not necessary to run 
> "freechain"
> | > on the archive file.
> | > 
> | > The result will be that @cb, @ub, @cd, @ud, and @bd are preserved
> | > with their original values in your archive file.
> | > 
> | > Bob
> | > 
> | > -- 
> | > Bob Stockler  +-+  bob at trebor.iglou.com  +-+  
> | 
> | Thanks Bob, for your method.  Although, I think I still may wait for
> | a new filePro feature.
> | 
> | Chris
> 
> I hope you're not so old as I now am when that feature request is
> incorporated into filePro, or before you find you -really- need the
> info held in the filePro 0th field of each record to be in archived
> records.
> 
> Bob
> 
> -- 
> Bob Stockler  +-+  bob at trebor.iglou.com  +-+  

I don't know how old you are Bob (I am 40), but I believe that the usefulness of
the feature would surely become reality, sooner rather than later. What do you
guys think?

Christopher Sellitto
VP Computer Operations
Guaranteed Returns