Jeff asks:
> I like it.  Now, for extra credit, how about a DBCONTROL that attempts a
> DDX expansion without actually putting a record?  Perhaps overkill, but
> seems useful for a "capacity-paranoid" application.
 
Funny you should mention that...it came up in conversation yesterday, as
a "good idea".
 
After hearing it, I put my spin on it as:
 
   Add a DBCONTROL mode/call/whatever that says "try to make sure that
   at least N free entries exist in the specified dataset".  This would
   not trigger an expansion if N (or more) free entries are availble,
   and would trigger one if the dataset has DDX and hasn't hit the maximum
   and #free < N.  If the dataset was already at the max, an error is
   returned.  If dataset is DDX, and not at max, it would be expanded
   even if the result wasn't quite N in size (e.g., one last bit of
   expansion is available (say, 10 entries), and you say "make room for
   20", and only 2 are currently available...the expansion would happen,
   12 would be available, but that means the request for 20 failed.
 
--
Stan Sieler                                          [log in to unmask]
                                     http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html