Menu
▾
▴
Re: [netrexx-pipelines] XLATE questions
|
From: Jeff H. <Je...@Je...> - 2022-06-27 16:47:33
|
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<p>Mike,</p>
<p>First let me make clear that I am not an XLATE "expert." I did
not write the XLATE stage for NetRexx, René did a long time
ago, it has a copyright date of 1998. I did add the input range
handling, back
then too. <br>
</p>
<p>I know little of what the XLATE stage is supposed to do or how it
does it. I have used it for case conversion, and wrote 8 simple
verification tests ( xlate_tests01.njp ).</p>
<p>As for the published NetRexx documentation for it, I am
responsible, bearing in mind the above. Mostly I copied it from
the IBM publication. I stand ready to improve it in any way I
can. Here is a special Thank You on this point. I just looked at
the xlate.nrx source code and see some different and additional
documentation there. I will work at consolidating all these for
the next release.<br>
</p>
<p>Also welcomed would be any additional verification tests.
Especially any showing erroneous results from the current
version. For these, I would need three pieces of information:</p>
<ol>
<li>the test XLATE stage</li>
<li>test input data; in the case of this stage, only a single line
would be needed but multiples to show different points can be
used<br>
</li>
<li>the expected output (for each input line); and if currently a
failure, I'd like that output too</li>
</ol>
<p>More comments interspersed below.</p>
<p>Jeff<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/27/2022 8:48 AM, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:hp...@we...">hp...@we...</a>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2d4...@we...">Hi!
<br>
<br>
First, the good news: I replaced my simple attempt of
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">xlate 1 00-FF 3A 20-3F 20-3F 40-5F 00-1f
60-66 40-46
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
(what failed) by a even more simple 'a: xlate 1' and feeding the
<br>
transliteration table (I prepared on another system) to secondary
<br>
input. This option works as designed.
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>Great. There is also a possible hint in IBM's Note "4. Use a
cascade of xlate stages to perform stepwise translation." and that
you might be able to generate your external table that way. But
it is beyond me.</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2d4...@we...">
<br>
Bad news, I have questions (one remark and a question):
<br>
</blockquote>
Questions, and corrections, are always considered good news and
welcomed by me. Remarks, also (usually!).<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2d4...@we...">
<br>
i) the NetRexx Pipelines Guide and Reference shows in the RRT
<br>
diagram (RRT = Rail-Road-Track) for more than a single inputRange
<br>
of XLATE to put it in brackets, but, as the repeat-track implies,
<br>
to repeat also the brackets. That's wrong, same error in author's
<br>
edition.
<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2d4...@we...">
<blockquote type="cite">pipe literal aaaaaaa!xlate (1 5) a b!term
<br>
baaabaa
<br>
Ready;
<br>
pipe literal aaaaaaa!xlate (1) (5) a b!term
<br>
FPLXLA052E Unknown translate table "(5)".
<br>
FPLSCA003I ... Issued from stage 2 of pipeline 1.
<br>
FPLSCA001I ... Running "xlate (1) (5) a b".
<br>
Ready(00052);
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Same holds true for NetRexx Pipelines, with a slightly different
<br>
error message and deviating RC.
<br>
</blockquote>
Thanks. I'll fix this. (It is correct in the IBM 7.1 User's Guide
and Reference.)
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2d4...@we...">
<br>
ii) the NetRexx Pipelines Guide and Reference shows as only
<br>
"documentation" for XLATE a RRT-diagram, but no additional
<br>
information than which of the default-table arguments are not
<br>
implemented. (BTW, shouldn't 'UPper' stand above the "main track"
<br>
since it's the default if no other arguments are entered?)
<br>
Marked as not yet in Pipes for NetRexx are 'OUTput' and 'TO/FROM
<br>
CODEPAGE n', but not 'INput'. For CMS input and output options of
<br>
the XLATE stage are related to the input and output settings.
<br>
<br>
Question: what is under Windows the corresponding parallel of CMS
<br>
input setting?
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>Sorry, I have no idea of what INput and OUTput are supposed to do
or what they might be related to in any system. I can find no
further reference to them in either IBM documentation.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(I find the XLATE IBM documentation to be harder to understand
than most. For example, I have no idea of the use of all those
Codepages, or why one would use them here other than that one
can go FROM one TO another. But why, and how one goes from a
language with umlauts to one with tildes is a mystery to me. Is
there a good reason that "500 EBCDIC Belgium, Canada,
Switzerland, International Latin-1. International number 5. This
is the base codepage for xlate." rather than say, "285 EBCDIC
United Kingdom." or "37 EBCDIC United States, Canada,
Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil, Australia,
New Zealand." and how should I decide between that and "274
EBCDIC Belgium." if I am really interested in Belgium?</p>
<p>Also, mentioned only in passing in a footnote is "E2A". [The
xlate.nrx internal documentation says E2A (EBCDIC to ASCII) and
A2E (ASCII to EBCDIC) are options instead of UPper and LOWer in
NetRexx Pipelines. ] )<br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2d4...@we...">
<br>
Best,
<br>
M.
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>As always, Thank You for helping me gain some understanding and
improve the code and its documentation.</p>
<p>Jeff<br>
</p>
</body>
</html>
|
