On 30 Dec 96 at 19:19, Don Paterwic wrote:

> can this be done? I have a cobol program that need to get a
> unique identifier, one that is already generated on the system
> by a quiz program (if I can use it I don't need to worry about
> logic to replicate number). Is it posssible to call this quiz
> program (executable) from a cobol program and use quizes output
> result to a file?                  Thanks

Don,

This can be done -- at least I did it back in 1985.  As I recall (and
remember this was the C.05.RealEarly version), you start QUIZ as a
process from COBOL with the STDIN set to a file that contains the QUIZ
commands.  You also set the parm (16-bit integer) to 10,000.  The only
'gotcha' with COBOL was setting the parm to 10,000.  In the old COBOL,
you could only set the value to 9999 (variable is defined as 9999
comp).  So, I simply set it to 5,000 and then added 5,000 to it.  I
don't know if this still works or if the new COBOL allows you to set an
16-bit integer to any value <=65,386 (or whatever the exact number is).
Cognos hasn't been big on removing functionality, so I would expect
this (or something similar) would work.

Larry Boyd    <[log in to unmask]>
"Those who respect the law and love sausage should never be
      around when either is made."
(These opinions are my own and not those of Hewlett-Packard.)