Using fixed record for processing

[Fairlight]

Confusious (Jose Lerebours) say:
> Fairlight wrote:
> > The honourable and venerable Jose Lerebours spoke thus:
> >> I have never been a fan of using "record 1" or "any one fixed record" to 
> >> sit on and run reports nor any kind of process.  This effectively makes 
> >> the process "single user" and that would be the ONLY time it should be 
> >> used.  I hope that is the case with you.
> > 
> > Negative.  I use -sr %n where %n is a variable external to dreport.  This
> > lets me sit on $LICENSE_COUNT records as control and logging facilities,
> > all at once--yet gives me one uniform place each from which to do variable
> > -pf operations.
> > 
> > One record -per specified number-, yes.  Single user?  Hardly.
> > 
> 
> I just would like to know if %n is always 1 or is it a variable number 1 
> to 999999999?  If it is a fixed number 1, it is single user since only 
> one process will run at a time ... You cannot have two or more processes 
> running at the same time.
> 
> Did you read the rest of my post?  

Did you read -ANY- of my message?  "WHERE %n IS A ***VARIABLE*** EXTERNAL
TO DREPORT."

I'm well aware of how -sr works.  I disagree with your assertion that
sitting on "any one fixed record" makes something single-user.  I may have
64 processes, each sitting on one fixed record--but they're all different
single fixed records.  But the act of using single fixed records does not
inherently make the whole system single-user.

> I did provide a very clear scenario where this is a valid concern.  If
> you are using variable record numbers, how is that fixed in the context
> in which I am referring?

Your -initial- statement had no preceding context.  It was an erroneous
blanket statement without qualification.

> Yeah, you can have a point-of-reference table with several thousand 
> records in it; have a script create a random number X thru Y and then 
> set %n so that your process sits in a available record.  If this is what 
> your are doing, how is this different from simply adding a new record?

Uhm...because I generate 128 records -once- and never have to generate
another.  It's a control file.  There's no need for number_of_records to
ever exceed $LICENSE_COUNT.  Ever.

mark->