Group W Toolset Release 4.0

This document describes changes released in Group W Toolset 4.0, released on 1997-07-03. The previous version was 3.5, released on 1996-11-14.

This document was developed for Netscape Navigator 3.0 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0, but it should work with most browsers. This document is element READ-THIS in file #1 of the GWTS release tape. To view it with a web browser, download it to your PC's hard disk (or to your web server) and point your browser to it. Please see below for additional HTML documents you can download and for instructions on how to browse files on a PC disk drive.

File #1 -- Group W Toolset Processors

Deletions

• GET-ISO-DATE is deleted. It's replaced by GET-EXT-DATE (see below). If you do not use GET-ISO-DATE in any local skeletons, you can delete it from SYS$LIB$*LOCALRS. If you did use GET-ISO-DATE in local skeletons, you have two choices:
  • You can keep it in SYS$LIB$*LOCALRS indefinitely. It will continue to work.
  • You can convert all skeletons from GET-ISO-DATE to GET-EXT-DATE, which is more flexible because it uses GWTS-CONFIG/SGS to determine the external (output) date format. To convert:
    • Ensure that you have copied GWTS-CONFIG/SGS to SYS$LIB$*LOCALRS.
    • Replace all *COPY of GET-ISO-DATE with *COPY of GET-EXT-DATE.
    • Replace all *PROCESS of GET_ISO_DATE with *PROCESS of *GET_EXT_DATE. These two *DEFINE packets accept the same input date format.
    • Replace all references to variable ISO_DATE with references to variable EXT_DATE. These two output variables are formatted the same.
    • @DELETE,S SYS$LIB$*LOCALRS.GET-ISO-DATE
• The pre-SB5R3 versions of PCT, RUNINFO and RIBUFDEF are deleted.
• The MASM version of @PRTF is deleted. A generic processor replaces it (see below).

Correct Errors in Making the 3.5 Tape

• The DEMAND-ONLY (SSG *COPY) element was omitted.
• The FILE-SPEC (SSG *COPY) element was omitted.
• The 'Z' option on @Q incorrectly did '@Z 1.' rather than '@ZIP 1.'. This was the result of including a League Data version of @Q, rather than the proper Tonerian version.
• @CYC refused to operate in batch because it *COPY'd the DEMAND-ONLY proc. This was a local change for League Data that should not have been put on the tape.

Correct Known Bugs

• @CYC,Z incorrectly displayed "Open time unknown" for the oldest cycle. This was an off-by-one error in SJM's thinking (rather than in his coding).
• @DISKPL's MSCON$ buffer was not large enough for Nasdaq (we define a lot of disk drives!).
• @DISK expected that pack-ids will always be six characters long. If a pack-id is shorter, it misaligned the columns in its printed output.
• PIPELINE subroutine failed to assign the PL$$ file (and subsequently got I/O error 021) when all of the following were true:
  • PIPELINE is configured to place PL$$ on FMEM (its default).
  • Site includes CONV cards in Exec build and supplies no alternate equipment for FMEM.
  • PL$$ file cannot be placed in memory because either global (AACONFIG MEMFLSZ) or local (Quota) memory file limit is exceeded.
  The solution is to re-try with 'F' if 'FMEM' fails.
• @RDSCQ showed some incorrect values at Nasdaq, which has a larger scheduling tree than many sites. This is corrected by increasing the maximum number of queue priorities (QMAX tag) from 10 to 99.
• @PCT got the implicit and default qualifiers wrong on Exec 44R4B in batch mode only. Solution is that RUNINFO subroutine changes the way these values are determined: Rather than dig them out of the PCT, it assigns a name item (@USE name) and then does ER FITEM$; this is a more expensive method but is completely reliable.
• @MANGLE had two bugs:
  • It corrupted program file elements (TOC was fine) when 'N' (no compression) option was used to mangle the file (the mangled file was fine).
  • It failed to ignore SDF control records (e.g., CTS line numbers) that can get added when the mangled file is uploaded by some releases of TAS.

• SDFPRINTUTIL had trivial errors in comments.

New Features

• A new element (SYS$LIB$*LOCALRS.GWTS-CONFIG/SGS) contains configuration SGSs that tell all Group W generic processors the format in which to display dates. Options are ISO (YYYY-MM-DD), American (MM-DD-YYYY), and British (DD-MM-YYYY). The site can also set the date seperator to any special character. Defaults are ISO date format and minus sign as seperator.
  Note Well: All generic processors are changed to use this configuration element, so you must copy it to SYS$LIB$*LOCALRS before installing any generic processors from this release.
• A new SSG *COPY proc, GET-EXT-DATE, returns the external date in the site's standard format (as determined by SYS$LIB$*LOCALRS.GWTS-CONFIG/SGS).
  Note Well: Some generic processors are changed to use this *COPY proc, so you must copy it to SYS$LIB$*LOCALRS before installing any generic processors from this release.
• Group W Toolset documentation is in HTML format. In file #1 of the release are three elements that you should download to the same directory your PC or Web site:
  • Download GWTS/HTM to GWTS.HTM
  • Download GWTSDOC/HTM to GWTSDOC.HTM
  • Download GWTSTOC/HTM to GWTSTOC.HTM
  Many people don't seem to know that you don't need a web server to browse HTML documents. Your browser can read documents from a PC disk drive. For example, if you downloaded the above files to the 'C:\' directory, you could browse them by pointing your browser to 'file:///C:/GWTS.HTM' (newer browsers allow you to shorten this to 'C:/GWTS.HTM'). GWTS.HTM defines a frameset that uses the other two documents. If your browser does not support frames, then point it to 'file:///C:/GWTSDOC.HTM' (and get a new browser!).

• Most processors display four-digit years. A statement of Year 2000 compliance is added to the Group W Toolset documentation.

• GENERIC now pipes (via GENERIC SGS) a flag that tells whether the processor was executed within a user @ADD stream, the name of the target file for GENERIC's @ADD, and the name of the processor under which GENERIC was invoked.
• A new SSG *COPY proc, GET-TS, returns a current timestamp as 17 characters (format YYYYMMDDHHMMSSTTT). It avoids the problem whereby incorrect timestamps can be produced if midnight is crossed between references to built-in SGSs (DATIME$, DATE$, TIME$). @TOCOMP uses this (see next item).

• A new generic processor, @TOCOMP, compares Table-of-Contents of two programs files. Output is much more useful than that of '@DOWN,D' (which is also buggy).
• @CYC is enhanced in a couple of ways:
  • don't scroll off the screen when displaying long reports to non-breakpointed demand users who did not execute the processor within an @ADD stream.
  • show whether each cycle of a disk file is loaded or unloaded.
  • Z-option displays will refer to "audit trail" rather than "ALAT" because the Z option is useful for any mass-storage audit trail file.
  • replace Unisys Standard of 2027 code with direct reference to eight-digit dates provided by @MFDPL @2R1 (or higher).

• @DISK refines the way it handles the "more" prompt for non-breakpointed demand users:
  • handle '@EOF' gracefully when it's entered as a response to the prompt.
  • don't provide the prompt to non-breakpointed demand users who execute the processor within an @ADD stream.

• @DAD uses the FILE-SPEC proc to parse the INFOR table. This change is transparent to the user.
• @COPYG is enhanced in minor ways:
  • use the FILE-SPEC proc to parse the INFOR table. This change is transparent to the user.
  • handle '@EOF' gracefully when it's entered as a response to the "more" prompt.
  • don't display "more" prompt if non-breakpointed demand user @ADDed the processor call.

• @EACQ will now acquire space for word-addressable files.
• @SYSID will now show the Partition name and version from the PDB (M-Series only).
• A new processor, @MCTPL, pipes selected data from the MCT. It's supported for M-series systems only.
• A new processor, @SYS, is an alternative to @SYSID for M-series systems only. It uses @MCTPL. It does not implement @SYSID's little-used 'R' option. It does not show the boot tape reel-id from SOFTWARE*BOOT$TAPE$. It does not show whether the boot was software- or hardware-initiated, whether automatic or manual, or whether panic dump was taken. Maybe in the next version? @SYSID remains supported for now.
• @MFDPL is enhanced in a couple of ways:
  • pipe additional information about disk files (e.g., more back-up info, placement info, more bivalent attrbutes).
  • pipe an eight-digit date (YYYYMMDD) as subfield 2 of all date fields.

• @PRTF is re-written as a generic processor that takes its input from @MFDPL 2R1 (or higher). This makes @MFDPL the only Group W processor that knows what the MFD looks like.
• @QC is enhanced in several ways:
  • use a different algorithm for choosing element names into which to copy symbiont files (including ability to handle an SR'd catalogued file).
  • use the FILE-SPEC proc to parse the INFOR table. This change is transparent to the user.
  • improved help text.