In <2F773CF8@smtpgate> "Williams, Pete - Prog Analyst" <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
 
>
>Help.....
 
[Problem description: 'unable to purge files "owned" by another user' deleted]
 
>Since I don't seem to be able to alter the creator and thus be able to
>release the file, I thought about comparing the last access date and time
>with the creation date and time.  Once again, the brick wall.  It seems that
>using Finfo, you can get statistics on just about everything else a file
>has, except for the last access time.
>
>Does anyone have any wonderful ideas?  Please, I beg of you, do not tell me
>to just use MPEX.  I know how good it is, but management doesn't seem to
>have the same valued opinion.  Also, I have been told that we will not be be
>upgrading to MPE 5.0 until at least mid-summer.
 
Well, you've already answered yourself somewhat because you know MPEX does
this already, but since you've begged me not to tell you "JUST use MPEX",
I'll point out how you can turn management around on the issue of "cost":
get as accurate of an estimate of the time it would take you to fully
research the intrinsics and internals neccessary to change the owner of a
file (since you know MPEX does this, then it is *possible* for you to
accomplish the same feat), add in the time you have ALREADY spent on this,
and figure out how much time it will take you and/or your staff to maintain
this program each and every time HP changes MPE/iX.  Multiply the number of
hours (days? weeks?) that you come up with by whatever rate is appropriate
for your shop for such a project, and compare that number to the initial
cost and annual maintenance of MPEX.
 
Note that this does not always work: you may find (either through here or
some other source) a really simple and effective way to call whatever system
internals are needed, and therefore your estimate drops down to about a day
or two to create it and maybe an hour to maintain it each time HP changes the
operating system.  In this case, of course, it is cheaper and easier to
maintain
such a utility in house.  That is when the backup argument comes into play:
this
one day/one hour "cost" is for only *1* utility, while MPEX provides some many
useful "functions" that even I (who spent several years documenting the
product)
cannot even count them all!
 
Tom Emerson
[log in to unmask]