Solutions
by Softech
Second
Edition - May 1996
Softech Solutions,
Inc. 300 North County Rd 427 Suite 100 Longwood FL
32750
1-407-331-TECH(8324)
1-407-331-5570(Fax)
SSI@SoftechSolutions.com
Welcome to the second periodic edition of Solutions by Softech. Again, we would like to know if there is anyone else in your organization who would like to receive it. If you have anything that you would like to ‘publish’, please feel free to send, fax or e-mail it to us. And again, to the dismay of our legal council, feel free to copy, reproduce, distribute, electronically or otherwise, anything in this newsletter.
Did you hear why Dr. J. voted for Brent Barry during the NBA All Star Slam-Dunk Contest? He didn’t want to hear the ‘Elder Barry Whine!’
Wang World
Although the majority of our work is for the IBM mainframe world, we do support the technical needs of several Wang VS shops. Recently Logan Lumber Company, a wholesale lumber distributor in Tampa, Florida, upgraded their Wang VS100 to a VS6230 Turbo. The results of the upgrade have been dramatic. Batch programs that ran over 4 hours now run in under 30 minutes. On-line response time is sub-second regardless of the load on the system. We have tried running multiple large compiles along with multiple batch jobs and still the on-line response time is sub-second. The upgrade was made with a minimal amount of coding changes. The biggest problems were the use of device numbers above 255 on the VS6230, which were not supported on the VS100, and many cabling problems. The old BNC/TNC Coax/Twinax was all replaced with twisted pair and baluns and the Fibermux boxes that were used for the warehouse devices were replaced with FOAPA’s (Fiber Optic Active Port Assemblies) from Wang. The old configuration had 16 megabytes of main memory, about 3 gigabytes of disk storage and was maxed out at 128 serial devices (workstations, printers and remote tasks.) The new box has 64 megs of main memory, over 16 gigs of disk storage and allows 256 serial devices. The footprint of the new system is also significantly smaller making the computer room available for an occasional afternoon racquet ball game.
Virus
Alert
In our
never-ending attempt to keep our clients free from
all the current PC viruses, here are our latest
discoveries:
The Dan Qualye Virus - Thers sumthin rong wit yur komputer butt ewe just cant figour it out!; The Federal Bureaucrat Virus - it divides your hard disk into hundreds of little units, each of which does practically nothing, but all of which claim to be the most important part of your computer
CUT ME OUT AND HANG ME UP
When Bill was in his early 20’s his best friends grandfather, who had retired from the New York telephone company, used to run an ad in the local neighborhood newspaper, the Penny Saver. He and a friend were part time handymen and they advertised their services under the above caption. They wanted people to be able to find them when they needed a handyman. Well, we would like to suggest to you that Softech Solutions serves much the same purpose as Bill’s friend’s grandfather and his friend - when you need us we’re here to help. Use us to manage your application development peaks and valleys effectively.
So . . .
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Why isn’t phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
On The Shelf
The following are previous enhancements and projects that we have done which may be of use in your operation.
Application Processing
Requeuing to Approve Review class for manual release to AR - ensures that approved applications are held in the approved review class until released from that class to the AR system. Class is selected by Type.
Classification Summary -a real-time summary of applications in the Edit Queue, and Work Queue. Selection into individual classes is accomplished from the summary screen.
Source Statistics - a real-time subsystem tracking applications by source and type. Summaries are shown individually or by all sources / all types, specific source / all types, and all sources / specific type. Statistics are held by day, WTD, MTD, YTD, and month/year. Avg score, nbr and % of approvals and declines are tracked across 20 user defined score ranges. Nbr submitted is also tracked.
Type Transfer - a real-time function to copy an application from one type to another with options to retain memos and credit reports. By option, you can be taken to maintenance or restart.
Activity Status - provides the ability to see the exact status of today’s applications and for all non-decisioned applications on file.
Authorizations
Standalone retail VISA Interface - an interface to VISA for real-time retail authorizations.
Conversions / Compliance - we have done portfolio conversions and compliance implementation for various customers with great success.
Solution Needed:
Here’s your chance to provide Softech with a Solution and win a great prize while you are at it. A random drawing will be made from all correct answers received by June 30, 1996 and the winner will receive a Softech Solutions golf shirt. Put your thinking caps on! This is a three part question:
1 - name a word with three consecutive dotted letters; 2 - name a word with four consecutive vowels; 3 - name a word with three consecutive sets of double letters.
We believe that there is one and only one word for each answer, but we will accept any non-capitalized ‘Webster’ word as valid (sorry out there in the Aloha state but Hawaiian words don’t count.) We think a small hint is in order, so here it is. If you were horsing around while you were standing in line waiting for your English accountant you might use all of these words in describing your experience! Good Luck!
Techie Tips
COBOL II Object Module Considerations
With COBOL II, you can specify that all the "run-time" COBOL subroutines (those "IL..." modules) be dynamically loaded at execution instead of redundantly link-edited into the base module that uses it. By doing so, you can dramatically reduce the size of a module load library. We have seen the size of a loadlib utilizing this technique drop to as much as a third of its original size. This is true for both batch and CICS load libraries, although more consideration needs to be taken for CICS loadlibs due to the potential for a "synchronous halt" to CICS until the I/O for the module is complete. Refer to IBM manual "CICS ESA Performance Guide", Chapter 20, Programming Considerations, COBOL Residence Options for more CICS detail.
When executing batch programs, you need only add the run-time COBOL II routines library to your STEPLIB JCL statement. In batch there is very little "downside" to this technique. When the modules are linked into the base module, all the routines are loaded at batch program startup. When they are dynamically loaded, they are only loaded during execution on a "when used" basis. Thus, a small amount of "fetch" overhead will exist. However, it is our opinion that the large amount of "reclaimed" loadlib space more than compensates for this minor negative. There is one other potential drawback that must be understood. When link-editing COBOL modules into the base module, you can rest assured that installing a new compiler or release of compiler will not affect the operation of your program, at least not until you recompile it. When the modules are dynamically loaded, a "flawed" COBOL module could appear and cause a problem, even though you have not changed or compiled your program. We have personally had nothing but positive results utilizing dynamic COBOL modules.
In order to take advantage of this in batch, the compiler options involved with COBOL II are AMODE, RMODE, RENT, and RESIDENT. In addition, these compiler options can be overridden during link-edit via the PARM option. When RENT (re-entrant) is the option, the compiler forces ANY for both AMODE and RMODE. If NORENT is used, RMODE and AMODE defaults depend on the RESIDENT option. If RESIDENT is specified, AMODE is ANY and RMODE is 24. If NORESIDENT is the option, AMODE is 24 and RMODE is 24. You can override the defaults of ANY to 24 or 31 using the PARM parameter during link-edit. To condense this down to something useable, use the following COBOL II options during batch compilations: DYNAM, RENT, and RESIDENT. The on-line module options we used were: NODYNAM, RENT, and RESIDENT.
(The preceding Techie Tip was brought to you by Ron, so if you have any questions or comments, his home number is 407-555-1212 and he is usually available for questions from 1-4 in the morning - only kidding, call him at the office if you have any questions.)
Softech On the Go!
Over the last several months, we at Softech have been very busy. Here are some highlights:
Ron just returned from a two-month stint in Boise, Idaho where he helped with CardPac Compliance and de-conversions. Aside from the work, Ron skied for the first time and eventually got to where he could even do the "black diamond" courses. Although Ron had a lot of "yard sales" (that’s short for cart-wheeling down the slopes), he faired much better than his wife Debbie who visited and shattered her ACL on her first day. He says he’ll never think of potatoes again when someone mentions Idaho. In all his travels he claims to have never seen more beautiful country than much of Idaho (but he has done most of his traveling at night.)
Bill spent the first part of the quarter implementing an upgraded Wang VS system (See Wang World above) and then spent a little over a month doing compliance and miscellaneous interface work in Hawaii. He got no sympathy from anyone when he called back complaining about how he hated being on the road. Although he did have to work a lot, he did manage to get his wife out for a week of semi-vacation. After the Hawaii project, Bill and Kathy attended Kathy’s annual family reunion (Mahoney Madness VII) in Atlanta, Georgia. Fortunately it was early enough to miss the Olympic ‘Madness’. Currently, Bill is busy implementing a new interface between a NEC telephone system and a Wang VS computer as well as putting together this newsletter.
Ed has been doing some of the coding that almost made him famous. He had to write a Visa "specialized retail" authorization interface that has been certified and running live for several weeks now. Somehow he managed to also buy a new house and commit to getting married (he and Janice will be marrying in late May). Ed’s current project is requiring him to spend some time in San Francisco which, coincidentally is where he and Janice will be honeymooning.
Scott is the only one who has stayed home lately. He has been busy enhancing the CDM application for several of our local customers. Over the last couple of months, Scott and his wife Carol have made several scuba dive trips, a couple involving some weekend trips to the Florida Keys. They have a new addition to their family - a new boat. Oddly enough, its just the right size for the Softech Partners to all fit into if we ever get a break from this thing called work.
Bill and Scott also got to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity by attending the Master’s golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club and ‘Yes’ it is even more beautiful in person than it is on TV. Also part of the group were Ralph Monger, Dave Morgan, Rollie Hinton and Jim Gillin, names we’re sure a lot of you recognize from days gone by.
Looking back, it has been a fast-paced quarter.
Suggestions
Wanted!
Just
in case you are not into word games but still
would like an opportunity to win Softech Solutions
golf shirt here’s your chance. If you submit a
suggestion to us that we end up using in our
newsletter we will send you a golf shirt. It can
be a Techie Tip, a Non-Techie Tip, or an article
(sorry, nothing for jokes, although we will give
you the credit if you want!)
Surfing on
THE WEB
Well
what did you expect? Everyone else is doing it and
now, so are we. Softech has created its first
attempt at a homepage on the World Wide Web. Even
though we are still in the process on ‘fine
tuning’ and we are also evaluating other
providers, we would like you to ‘visit’ our
web site and let us know what you think.
Observations
of a 17 Year Old
Bill’s
son, after watching a freeze warning plant
update on the local news commented, "Isn’t
it ironic that you need to bring in or cover most
of your plants but that the Pansies will be OK to
leave outside unprotected?" Next time someone
calls you a Pansy you can smile at them and nod
with ultimate self-assurance.
Copyright © 2000
[Softech Solutions, Inc]. All rights reserved.