Re: Testing Platforms

Hi Again
I did of course mean the strings to be 'q' and "q" to cover double and
single quote usage as Q and q will pick up on D3. Unfortunately one needs
to be explicit for 'q' "q" 'Q' "Q" in other flavours.
Peter McMurray
"Peter McMurray" <excalibur21@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:AGZak.16705$IK1.5823@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Chris
D3 works fine on XP and does not require a lot of grunt if you definitely
want separation. I run my main system on my central machine and my demo
system on a laptop. I just set up two users in the terminal emulator on
the laptop and run them one local and one over the network with no
conflicts even though they share the same printers. The printer issue is
not a problem because D3 uses the local share name on the machine that it
is running on.
I think that most of us would just run a separate account on the main
machine in your circumstance. The number of Q pointers is not really an
issue as one would simply run a small program (20 lines including comments
I guess) to set them using a source list. It is very easy to analyse
them, simply SORT MD WITH A1 "Q" BY A2 BY A3 A2 A3 you should be able to
exclude any pointing to DM but caution.
As for the issue of finding programs that could create them on the fly.
No Problem as you have the source code.Presuming it is in BP then
FIND
source file BP
String "q"
string "Q"
List Name GOTCHA
Good Luck
Peter McMurray


"Chris A. Kusmierz" <ckusmierz@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ioWak.195$9W.143@xxxxxxxxxxx
I've been lurking around CDP since March 2002, which was my first
exposure to PICK. I'm now one year into a new position which in part
entails maintaining a ~20 yr old PICK application. Our current system
runs on a D3/NT box running W2K. The best I can gather is that it was
migrated from an R83 system. Apparently the original VAR is long gone, as
is all the former employees who worked for them and would consult over
the last several years.

I've managed to hold my own over the last year, mainly doing modest
programming changes relating to data entry screens, report formatting,
adding printers, etc...But the company is growing and I see no need to
replace what works just because it isn't mainstream.

So I have a head full of ideas for tweaking and expanding on the current
system. However, my experience with our local Raining Data vendor (yes,
we are current on our support contract) has run hot and cold. I
understand the difference between maintaining an application versus
supporting a platform. I can support the application (I have the source
code) but I find myself in need of way to test things without affecting
the real data and system, since there's no easy recovery if I screw up.

What I would like to do is create a test environment where I could try
new things without compromising the existing application/data. My first
thought was to do an account-restore to a seperate account and use that
account to experiment. But on further review I see alot of Q pointers
which cross accounts, and analyzing and mapping these cross accounts
seems a bit of work.

So, my question is; Is there a way to run a type of virtual machine on a
windows box which would allow me to bring the entire PICK system into
said machine and experiment with programming changes?

I'm not necessarily looking for a free solution (thought it would be
nice) but I am looking for the most cost effective solution. I don't
believe the platform I'm seeking would need to totally mimic the D3/NT
enviornment (such as printer/file support) but it would need to run the
existing PICK code.

Management is starting to make noises about shopping for an SAP system or
suchandwhat, and I don't think we need to fix what ain't broke. Quite
frankly, I'd rather put lipstick on a pig than re-invent the wheel so to
speak[1]

Chris A. Kusmierz

[1] Please don't flame away as if this is an insult to MV apps or
platforms. Check the context.










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