Linking problem in 7.10G

Deskin, Bob Bob.Deskin@Cognos.COM
Fri, 4 Sep 1998 09:14:16 -0400


Thanks for the kind words Arthur.

Bob

> ----------
> From: 	arthur kogan[SMTP:akogan@westpac.com.au]
> Sent: 	Friday, September 04, 1998 12:18 AM
> To: 	alex ling
> Cc: 	Bob.Deskin@Cognos.COM; powerh-l@lists.swau.edu
> Subject: 	Re: Linking problem in 7.10G
> 
> Hi Alex, 
> 
> You wrote "I reached my own finding yesterday which was then pasted on to
> you last night.". 
> 
>     I thought we arrived at the explanation for this problem together. How
> about some credit for your old co-worker? I would also like to see the
> picture of Bob with your finding "pasted" on to him!!! 
> 
>     JUST JOKING!!! 
> 
> But on the serious note, you also wrote "Suggestion - C/S Asia Pacific
> needs more than just 1.5 staff!!" 
> 
>     I think to be fair, it should be acknowledged that although currently
> there are only 1.5 staff in Cognos Customer Support Asia Pacific
> supporting Powerhouse, this has been generally sufficient under normal
> workload over my last year of working there (to march 1998). There were 2
> of us at that time and we were able to use some (actually quite a lot) of
> our time on support of BI products. I think this is a testimony to the
> quality and stability of Powerhouse. Also (and without naming names) there
> are a number of other very experienced staff in Cognos Asia Pacific (who
> are normally used in other areas of the business) that management can call
> on in times of need. This is quite apart from the ability of calls to be
> passed on directly to C/S in Canada, who have quite a large team. As you
> know (having worked there), the staffing levels are demand driven and
> staff can be moved temporarily to accommodate this, or new staff hired if
> the trend persists. Having worked in Cognos customer support I can say
> that although some days were busier than others, we were never worked to
> stress levels, and according to customer surveys have always been able to
> provide top level of support. I know from experience that Cognos has
> attached great importance to its customer support function and uses its
> quality as competitive advantage against its competitors. Since leaving
> Cognos in March I have had a couple of occasions to call on customer
> support and have to say that I am very happy with the response I got. I
> also think this list is of great benefit to end users, having people like
> Bob Deskin on it. 
> 
> Just my thoughts... 
> 
> Arthur Kogan 
> Westpac Financial Services 
> Sydney, Australia 
>   
>   
> 
> alex ling wrote: 
> 
> 	---"Deskin, Bob" <Bob.Deskin@Cognos.COM> wrote: 
> 	> 
> 	> I just heard from Allison about the linking problem in 7.10G and I
> 
> 	thought 
> 	> everyone would be interested. The bug # is 245681 and has to do
> with 
> 	getting 
> 	> a data conversion error linking an InterBase long binary to an 
> 	InterBase 
> 	> short binary. Turns out that the error existed at least as far
> back as 
> 	> 7.10E4 (and probably further back) but it was ignored rather than 
> 	being 
> 	> reported. During the development of the QTP Tracer (which is 
> 	Allison's baby 
> 	> and accomplishment - everyone say thank you to Allison), the code
> was 
> 	> changed to report the error so it could be traced. Now the
> clincher. 
> 	The 
> 	> error only occurs when a value that is too large for the short 
> 	binary is 
> 	> used. In other words, this is a valid error message. This bug is
> being 
> 	> rejected. 
> 	> 
> 
> 	Yeah, I reported this problem to C/S sydney on 14 Aug and was
> informed 
> 	that Ottawa (two, YES two staff) confirmed that it was a suspected
> bug 
> 	since it was working perfectly in 710E4 (Bob, 710E4 is our current 
> 	production version and it is not a problem on this version). Despite
> 
> 	my cry for help and finally having to resort to hotsite status 
> 	pursuit, no detailed investigation into this problem was being 
> 	conducted by Cognos and no sound technical explaination was given on
> 
> 	the nature of the problem that would help us and give us the 
> 	confidence. I reached my own finding yesterday which was then pasted
> 
> 	on to you last night. 
> 
> 	Bug 245681 - Linking a LONG to a SHORT causing Data Conversion
> Error. 
> 	The problem will occur when - 
> 
> 	linking X (LONG) to Y (SHORT). 
> 	where X is greater than 32767 (ie, 2^15 -1) since SHORT  in
> Interbase 
> 	is 2-byte signed in PH. 
> 
> 	The error did not occur in 710E4, 710F1. 
> 	It surfaced in 710F2, 710F4, 710G (710F3 not tested). 
> 
> 	I should not have to do all these work on my own in the dark. You
> guys 
> 	have the C-code behind PH. 
> 
> 	Rejected? What about the issue of upward compatibility for released 
> 	software??? 
> 
> 	Bob, answer to your first reply on this subject. It was the ordeal
> of 
> 	being kept in the dark working on the problem on your own, along
> with 
> 	the list of known bugs and who know what else that prevented our 
> 	management from giving the green light to upgarde to 710G. Also 
> 	because of OCC deadline for us to be Y2K compliant by end Oct 1998,
> we 
> 	need Plan B which requires a known working version for us. We cannot
> 
> 	rely on that 710G1 will be a working version for us after having 
> 	relied on 710G. We are currently on 710E4. 
> 
> 	Suggestion - C/S Asia Pacific needs more than just 1.5 staff!! 
> 
> 	Regards, 
> 	A Ling. 
> 
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