Nutangujar
750 pts. | Aug 17 2009 7:14PM GMT
Thanks Phil..
Is it better to directly write DDS/layout than to use RLU…
I’m completely new to this area…
Thanks,
Nutan
Yorkshireman
3200 pts. | Aug 19 2009 7:20AM GMT
The answer is….
It all depends..
There are people here who still write internal described printer files.
Tools like 2e, Lansa, Magic and so on provide a higher level.
RLU is the IBM approach - clunky and quirky
My own favoured approach leans towards Phils comment
- first write yourself some clean, understandable, well structured DDS for a printer file. Include in it the keywords you may only use ’sometimes’
give it a structure for Header, Sub header, body text, sub footer, footer, end of report. Provide standard totals fields for .number of records and so on
- comment out a whole load of that stuff
Use it as your template for any printer files. Even at the cost of doing a bunch of moves in the code from your database fields to your standard fields
exsr print total
printtotal begsr
Eval PrtTotal = Total
Eval Col1 = ABCDE
Eval Col2 = DEFGH
write total
ensdr
- that kind of thing
But then , I still normally use 2e, so I never have to care about all this frothy detail of getting presentation stuff together - the database design is the thing - all else should flow from it on auto pilot.
Pdraebel
885 pts. | Aug 20 2009 8:46AM GMT
Strangely no one mentioned the Options in CODE 400 or using WDSC. The options for designing Printer files are pretty much like designing a screen and you get an instant look at how the printout will look like.






