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TechTalk: Report Designing on Your CRT

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IBM Screen Design Aid (SDA) provides an easy way to design screen layouts without coding the DDS specs. Unfortunately, they do not provide any way to easily design the DDS for externally-described printer files.

With a little bit of trickery, you can use SDA and a 27x132 display terminal (such as IBM 3196 or 3197) to design the basic layout of printer files. If you do not have a terminal that can display 132 characters across, you can still use this technique, but only for 80 character printouts. Here is the procedure to follow:

1. Run STRSDA. Select option #1 (Design screens) and press enter. Place a '1' in the first parameter (Design option)and press enter.

2. Enter a 'Y' next to the Display Sizes prompt and press enter.

3. Type a '1' in Size 27x132 or 24x80 , and press enter. Press F12 for the previous screen. Press F12 again.

4. Type a '5' in the Design option parameter, as you would normally, to define your screen format. Assign a record name for the section of the report you will be creating in the "Record" parameter. The way I use SDA is to define separate "screen" formats such as HEADER, DETAIL, TOTL1, TOTLR, etc. Define each format to be one "WRITE" or "EXCPT" in your print program. Fill in the name of your printer file in the "Member" parameter, and use DSPF for the "Source type." Press enter.

When you are through designing your printer file, press F12, and type a '6' ( Save DDS Source, Create Object) in the Design option parameter. Next, type a 'Y' next to "Save generated DDS source," but type an 'N' next to "Create display file." After you press enter, exit SDA with F3.

Next, use the command STRPDM to modify your source member. Use the SEU edit function to remove any line numbers that are present, and replace them with the SPACEA and/or SPACEB keywords. Also remove any other display-only DDS Keywords such as DSPSIZ or CF (Command Function).

This procedure is really simple. Give it a try. It can virtually eliminate the need for the dreaded "Graph Paper Layout."

Art Tostaine, Jr. Spotswood, New Jersey

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