File limit reached in Quick screen

[Deskin, Bob]

I have learned over the years that what is logically very simple is
often much more difficult. Not just in PowerHouse but other things. If
only it were as simple as increasing the single allocation. However,
there's a lot of clever code in PowerHouse because of the initial data
area limitations. We've certainly changed a lot of code over the years,
but the table structures have pretty much remained the same. That file
table entry also appears in many other related tables. It's basically a
big linked list.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com
[mailto:powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com] On Behalf Of Robert Edis
Sent: November 5, 2004 9:19 AM
To: PH List
Subject: RE: File limit reached in Quick screen


File limit reached in Quick screenWhy not just increase that 5 bit
allocationg to say 8?  Surely that would be an easy thing to do and have
virtually no impact on other logic other than extend the file limit.

HOWEVER, I have found that this limit helps to enforce better
logic/coding in quick screens.  In 10+ years of using PowerHouse I only
came across ONE instance why >31 files was ligigimate, and we found a
work-around for that.

Blue
  -----Original Message-----
  From: powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com
[mailto:powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com]On Behalf Of Deskin, Bob
  Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004 5:44 AM
  To: powerh-l@lists.sowder.com
  Subject: RE: File limit reached in Quick screen


  The PowerHouse internal architecture is based on a large number of
tables that store information on things such as physical files, logical
files, items, fields, etc. These tables are all cross linked by a table
entry id. Guess what, the number of bits originally allocated for the
number of files in a screen was 5 bits giving 31 entries (2^5 - 1). Why
5 bits? Because in those days (late 70s) we were working on the HP3000
under MPE and there was a fixed data stack of 32K words (64K bytes).
Every bit/byte was precious. And we though that 31 was HUGE. And it was
for a while.

  The thing is that to restructure the tables and find all the
references (and cross references in other tables and their references)
is a major task. It's not necessarily difficult but it is picky,
time-consuming work. So it was always a trade-off between doing that one
thing versus many other things. Based on priorities, resources, and user
demand, the other things always won.
  Bob Deskin
  Senior Product Manager, Application Development Tools
  Cognos Inc. 3755 Riverside Drive, Ottawa ON K1G 4K9 CANADA
  bob.deskin@cognos.com (613) 738-1338 ext 7268

    -----Original Message-----
    From: powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com
[mailto:powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com]On Behalf Of
Mikael.Olesen@qss-uk.com
    Sent: November 5, 2004 3:26 AM
    To: powerh-l@lists.sowder.com
    Subject: RE: File limit reached in Quick screen


    There are ways of working around the problem but I have always been
a bit annoyed

    about the 31 files limit. Why 31? and why don't Cognos change it?
Bob?



    Kind Regards

    Mikael Olesen





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