Re: Handling changing page lengths / 4GL reports

In article <8775@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>, walt@mathcs.emory.edu (Walt Hultgren {rmy}) writes: |> How about some syntax like: |> |> report [main] rpt_name ( ... ) |> ... |> call rpt_func() |> ... |> end report |> |> report function rpt_func() |> ... |> end function |> It seems like the Informix code is flexible enough to allow the programmer to design his/her own functions. I'm not one to want to, however, and anytime I can bully the vendor into giving me what I want the happier I am. This syntax above looks quite familiar. Wonder where I've seen it before? |> |> One more note: |> |> > FIRST PAGE HEADER |> >{ Initialize variables } |> > LET ff = ASCII 12 |> > [...] |> |> In releases prior to 4.1, a bug in 4GL page break processing sometimes |> caused the data displayed in a PAGE HEADER section to be from a previous |> row instead of the current one. This may have also occurred in some |> of the group processing. |> |> The fix installed in 4.1 was to delay the PAGE HEADER processing until |> the first PRINT, SKIP or NEEDS statement is executed in an ON EVERY ROW |> section (according to the 4.1 4GL Supplement, p. S-49 - S-50). I would |> tend to think that the fix is somewhat more generic, like maybe "don't |> do page headers till we're about to print the next report line." |> |> At any rate, if you're used to initializing report variables in a |> PAGE HEADER section as I sometimes do, you could be in trouble in 4.1. |> At least that's what the book says.... Well, actually the books says |> that a report that initializes variables that way may give different |> results under 4.1 from what it does under 4.0. To me, that's trouble. |> It irked me a great deal that I was unable to find any way to initialize such variables anywhere but in the page header. Thank you, Walt, for the post-mortem. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ John R. Carter, Sr. Programmer/Analyst - Informix DBA Computer Sciences Corporation jcarter@nas.nasa.gov Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation 415/604-3662 NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 M/S 258-6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------