>I have a set of jobs that take a dataset listing in qshow and
>creates a define file for suprtool to use.  These datasets
>were created using QUTIL and therefore except for key
>items when you call up these datasets in suprtool all you
>see is a big filler field.

I must come to the defence of Qutil. Qutil only does this if the dataset
definition in the dictionary contains odd length items. Because Image
requires even length data items Qutil will stop using the data item names
and replace everything from that point forward in the dataset with a filler,
padding it to an even length if necessary. If you force Qutil to do this for
multiple datasets in the same database then the FILLER items that it creates
will be numbered FILLER-1, etc. This produces a useable database but not a
very nice one. This is the fault of the programmer not Qutil.

If this were my database I would fix the source of the problem -- those odd
length data items. Perhaps there are single character items for use as flags
or codes? I'd group all these single character items into a single items
called FLAGS or I'd make them 2 characters each and live with the wasted
space. When I had a definition in my dictionary that would generate sensible
dbschema input then I would save my data to a subfile using Quiz or Qtp,
erase the data set with whatever tool you like, create the new dbschema
source with Qutil, rebuild the dataset and reload the data from the saved
subfile. 

I don't know if Adager now offers a similar capability but DBGeneral has a
very nice feature by which it detects the differences between an existing
database and a new dbschema source and then effects the changes it has
detected. In this case it would delete your giant FILLER and add all the new
data items using the dbschema source built by Qutil.

Regards,
JWP

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *