Possible 'undocumented' feature in QUIZ

[Karman, Al]

Al, unfortunately, is already the Orkin Man of bug reports!  I've got 1
outstanding with Cognos Corp. on a nasty odd-byte-keylength bug that's Quite
Old, and Been Known About For Awhile.

Aside to Cognos----instead of the rush for newer/more/better, maybe an extra
moment to confirm:
	- removal of Very Old bugfix request (mine was known I think since
version 7.
	- functionality supplied works as advertised.

I know better than to think that a product such as 8.29.D would be bug-free.
I would, however, have expected Cognos to have rushed to squish their OWN
bug list.

Al Karman
IT Consultant
US Freightways 
akarman@usfreightways.com
773.824.2284


-----Original Message-----
From: Deskin, Bob [mailto:Bob.Deskin@Cognos.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 3:56 PM
To: 'Powerhouse List'
Subject: RE: Possible 'undocumented' feature in QUIZ


I agree, not having a dictionary isn't a viable workaround. I just thought
it was interesting. I suggest Al contact customer support and register a bug
(they may know if it's been found before).

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Pickering, John (NORBORD) [mailto:PICKERIJ@norbord.com]
Sent: January 9, 2001 2:03 PM
To: 'Deskin, Bob'
Cc: 'Powerhouse List'
Subject: RE: Possible 'undocumented' feature in QUIZ


Bob

Same thing happens for any other record length. And it doesn't seem to
matter if the record length is even or odd.

But you're right -- with no dictionary it works fine. But I fear this work
around will have somewhat limited use :-)

Off to the labs with you!!

Regards,
JWP

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Deskin, Bob [SMTP:Bob.Deskin@Cognos.COM]
> Sent:	Tuesday, January 09, 2001 1:11 PM
> To:	powerh-l@sphere.swau.edu
> Subject:	RE: Possible 'undocumented' feature in QUIZ
> 
> I don't know why this happens. I was playing around with this and found
> that
> it only happened when a dictionary is specified. The default sysdate if
> you
> have no dictionary is century excluded with a format of YYMMDD. I then
> tested with a dictionary with century excluded (I had one lying around
> from
> Y2K testing - remember that?) and everything worked. With a dictionary
> with
> century included, I get what you get.
> 
> If the sysdate value was binary zeros (null), then QUIZ would show the
> results we're seeing. Why that would be I don't know. Does this happen
> with
> any other report widths?
> 
> Bob Deskin              
> PowerHouse Web Product Manager and Senior Product Advisor
> Application Development Tools, Cognos Inc.
> bob.deskin@cognos.com (613) 738-1338 ext 7268 FAX: (613) 727-1178
> 3755 Riverside Drive P.O. Box 9707 Stn. T, Ottawa ON K1G 4K9 CANADA
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pickering, John (NORBORD) [mailto:PICKERIJ@norbord.com]
> Sent: January 9, 2001 12:07 PM
> To: 'Karman, Al'; powerh-l@sphere.swau.edu
> Subject: RE: Possible 'undocumented' feature in QUIZ
> 
> 
> Al
> 
> You're right - it does behave rather curiously!
> 
> With this code and 8.19.C4 I get the same result -- a "2" in column 161.
> 
> > :file temp1;temp
> > :purge temp1,temp
> > set report device disc name temp1
> > set page width 169 length 1
> > set nohead
> > report &
> >   tab   1 "Text" &
> >   tab 161 sysdate pic "^^^^^^^^" &
> >   tab 169 "2"
> > 
> 
> But if I change the page length from 1 to 2 I get what I expect - i.e. the
> 8
> digit yyyymmdd in 161/168 and a "2" in 169. Adding 'set report spacing 0'
> makes no difference.
> 
> Sorry - no explanation from me. I'll leave that to @.Cognos.
> 
> Do you really need a 169 byte record length? Besides my natural aversion
> to
> odd length records in both MPE and PH I'd prefer a little slack at the end
> of each record. All is fine with a record length of 170 :-)
> 
> Regards,
> JWP
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:	Karman, Al [SMTP:AKarman@USFreightways.com]
> > Sent:	Thursday, January 04, 2001 1:45 PM
> > To:	powerh-l@sphere.swau.edu
> > Subject:	Possible 'undocumented' feature in QUIZ
> > 
> > Greetings to the list.....
> > 
> > I came across something interesting and am curious if others have had
> the
> > same experience.
> > 
> > In QUIZ (PH8.29D) on my trusty HP 3000 937/LX running MPE/iX 6.0 pp0....
> >   (Oh Yeah, I'm Running For Power Patches Right Now....!)
> > 
> > I SET REP DEV DISK, and SET PAGE WIDTH 169.
> > 
> > When I try to REPORT .....TAB 161 SYSDATE PIC '^^^^^^^^' &
> > 				TAB 169 '1'
> > 
> > My record[161:9] = '2        '
> > 
> >    => YET <=
> > 
> > When I SET PAGE WIDTH 170
> > My record[161:9] = '200101041'
> > 
> > I welcome any information on this....
> > 
> > Thanks In Advance!
> > 
> > Al Karman
> > 
> 
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