There is only one scary topic in apps design, the unknown.  How to handle
it?  What would it look like?  In this case there is a lot of unknowns
because your dealing with something someone else is passing to you.  Like in
most cases of EDI, which in a sense that what this is, all parties know the
expectations of the applications involved.

With that said, you need to know the data being passed to you.  I don't care
what anyone says, sometimes size does matter.  You have to set requirements
as to the size of the data sent to you.  If the data can not meet your
requirements, then someone better break each record down and pass it with a
sequence number.  Once you receive the data records, you would have to
reassemble the actual record.

But then again, that's just what I think.

Ron Horner
HP3000 Systems Administrator
JCPenney Logistics
[log in to unmask]
(414) 259-2274
AIM: hornerrr
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Cartledge" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 9:37 AM
Subject: Socket handlng a string of unknown length


> Does anyone have any suggestions how I might handle data of unknown length
>
> A simple novice in handlng data posted through a socket, my experience of
> receiving data either involves knowing upfront how many bytes of data to
> expect or interrogating some part of the first part of the buffer for a
> number to tell me how much to expect.
>
> I am expecting a third party to post data through to my listener but as
yet
> cannot get a reasonable answer regarding length or termination character.
>
> I will be using NetIPC/Cobol (ought to use Berkley/C for portability but I
> may not have the time to work out)
>
> PS Rubbish cheap keyboard so forgive any typos.
>
> TIA
>
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>




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