OK, the subject sucks. But it is Friday. And this could be considered on topic, I think. I've been doing some DASD cleanup prep work. I've been using T-REX to look at catalogs and VVDSes. T-REX produces some really nice reports. But one thing that I inevitably do is download them to my Linux workstation for massaging and reformatting. I do similar processing of IDCAMS listings as well. I was just thinking that a nice option might be to be able to tell these reporting programs how to format some things for me. In particular, with a report that is line oriented - just give me a single header line and "n" lines of data. I don't wan't any page headers or footers. Also, separate each data element on a line with a user defined separator character (such as a |). Why? I can then easily parse that in REXX or Perl or Python or Java or COBOL or ... . It might even be nice to tell the program which variables that I'm interested in, so it produces only those values in the line.
For truly advanced reports, such as where there is a report line for something, then multiple more lines indented under it such as for repeating group subordinate information, then perhaps an XML format would be usable. If a vendor were to adopt this policy for report programs, do you think it would enhance their reputation in the market place and so perhaps enhance their sales? John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * (817)-961-6183 cell [email protected] * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
