Stan Sieler writes:
>
> Michael writes:
> >
> > And Mark Bixby replied:
> > > Wrong.
> > >
> > > Just say "NO" to decimal points for the same reason that you'd say "NO" to
> > > commas, i.e. because the CI functions/expressions and standard numeric
> > > conversion intrinsics (presently being used by programs that parse existing
> > > :LISTFILE,2 output) won't handle decimal points or commas.  Decimal points
> > > or commas increase the work required to convert ,2 parsers into ,20 parsers.
> >
> > No, no, no, no, no!
> > Do *NOT* convert your existing script to parse LISTF,20 output.  That's
> > what you did wrong the first time.  If you're going to modify your script
> > anyway, do it right and switch to using the FINFO function instead!

I personally don't have any ,2 parsers here; I tend to use ,6 and then FINFO().

But for sites that do have ,2 parsers and find a sudden urgent need to deal
with large files (say in the middle of the night when the parser breaks on
a field of ******), the quick fix to get the application running again is to
switch to parsing ,20 instead, and if there aren't any commas or decimal
points, the change is rather trivial.

I agree that the better fix (assuming you're not under production-is-broken-
fix-it-now pressure) is to use FINFO().
--
Mark Bixby                      E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Coast Community College Dist.   Web: http://www.cccd.edu/~markb/
District Information Services   1370 Adams Ave, Costa Mesa, CA, USA 92626-5429
Technical Support               Voice: +1 714 438-4647
"You can tune a file system, but you can't tune a fish." - tunefs(1M)