> Date:          Sat, 2 May 1998 14:49:33 -0400

> John Korb wrote:
> >
> > At 02:01 PM 1998/05/01 -0700, Jeff Vance wrote:
> > >Hi all,
> > >
> > >I was looking into enhancing SHOWVAR to accept a JOB= parameter that
> > >would show variables for another job or session if you had SM capability.
>
>         < BIG eraser used here>
>
> It would sure make it a lot easier for a sysadmin to chase down the
> answer to:  "My program keeps aborting with a DBOPEN error ...".
>
> You (as a system administrator) could then see what variables,
> especially HPPATH, that the user had in effect at the time and go on
> from there -- something that's not readily done now if the user is
> locked into a UDC/menuing program.

IMO, I don't think the :SHOWVAR @;JOB= "enhancement" will help debug
this type of error.

Why? Most customers use a logon UDC like the following:

logon
option logon
setvar ...
setvar ...
setvar ...
file ...
file ...
...
run a.b.c ...
bye

So the user logs on and then the application aborts. They call the
"system administrator" type with the problem stagement "My program
aborted with DBOPEN error...why?"

So what are you going to do? You can't do a :SHOWVAR @;JOB= on a
job/session that does not exist anymore because it logged off after
the DBOPEN error killed the program. Bottom line if you want to debug
the program you are going to have to put some appropriate
debugging/logging logic in the program so that it save enough info
that you can debug it. Or you are going to have to duplicate the
problem.

I just don't see how the :SHOWVAR enhancement is, in general, going
to make it easy to solve this problem.

BTW: this does not mean that I am against the :SHOWVAR enhancement, I
just think that the main value is to be able to display USER
vairables that have been set by other, currently executing, jobs and
sessions.

...beware of creeping elegance....

                                 Scott McClellan
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