PowerHouse Migration Questions -- Batch jobs on unix

[Guy Werry]

We did the same conversion in 1994.  We had a consulting company write a
Unix version of streamx, so that we could keep "streams" and the streamx
prompting.  They also wrote an MPE / Image emulator.

As time went on and I became more familiar with Unix, I have formed the
opinion that it's better to go with native Unix.  I.e.:

export PHD=xyqdb
export QUIZUSE=newsourcefile
quiz NOLIST

where "newsourcefile" contains the actual Quiz code.  We now prefer to run
from SOURCE code: Unix is a real pig in dealing with temporary subfiles if
your code is compiled.

Definitely, it is better to utilize the Unix operating system variables as
opposed to relying on the streamx prompt emulation.  More work up front,
perhaps, but works better in the long run.

In terms of the report limit, Unix has "set report nolimit".  I recommend it
heartily .. saves a lot of trouble unless one has a run-away job.

Speaking of the long term, don't cheap things out at the front: the closer
you can get to a true Unix environment, the better off you'll be.  We had an
entire emulator written, thinking that it would save us a bunch of training,
etc.  What we've now found is that it's a hindrance to move forward (not due
to the quality of the contractor's work, just that now there's an extra
layer of very OS-dependent code every time a new release of Unix shows up!)

Hope this helps,

Guy L. Werry
Senior Systems Analyst
Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting Co., Limited. 

-----Original Message-----
From: John MacLerran [mailto:macljohn@isu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 9:52 AM
To: powerh-l@lists.sowder.com
Subject: PowerHouse Migration Questions -- Batch jobs on unix


Howdy List-ers!

We are in the <sarcasm> wonderful, glorious, breathtaking </sarcasm> 
process of migrating from MPE to unix. One thing (of many) that is 
raising some questions is how best to handle PowerHouse in batch on unix 
(HP-UX specifically). Does anyone have some 'best practice' tips?  A 
couple of the most pressing issues are 'inline' code and prompting.

By inline code, I mean something like this:
    !quiz dict=xyqdb.prod.acct
    acc filexyz
    set rep lim 42
    set rep dev printer
    go
    exit
    !eoj

I know this gives unix fits, because of the way it handles stdin.  My 
understanding of the best way to handle the above would be to break the 
quiz code out into another file, then do a quiz auto=yadayada...  My 
question is "is that _really_ the best way, or am I overlooking 
something?"  I know this is a long shot, but does anyone have a script 
(MPE, mpex, qedit, sh, or Perl) that will parse a job and attempt to 
break it into separate files in preparation for changing the jobs to use 
the auto= notation?

By prompting, I mean this:  we use streamx to prompt for user input at 
job submission time.  The above quiz could look like this:
!quiz dict=xyqdb.prod.acct
acc filexyz
set rep lim ?enter report limit?
set rep dev printer
go
exit
!eoj

We also do more complex prompting, where we substitute the variables in 
via the {} notation in streamx, but the concept is similar.  Can 
PowerHouse even prompt in batch on unix?  Would it be better to re-code 
the jobs to use system variables?  Can items like the report limit above 
even be defined that way?

I'd also be curious to find out which batch job 'handlers' are being 
used by other PowerHouse shops, and which, if any, are 'better' than 
others.  (Price is a consideration, but not the only consideration -- 
some 'extra' money is available, as upper management understands the need.)

So, any takers?

--

----------------------------------------------------------------------
  John MacLerran
  IT Systems Analyst                       email:   macljohn@isu.edu
  Idaho State University                             V(208) 282-2954
  http://www.isu.edu/~macljohn                       F(208) 282-3673
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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