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Overcast but warm sums up the weather today.

Together with Frank I tested the Split Order problem (prs 11513) and it indeed occurs in the other program as well. I know now what to change where, I only have to find a when :) .

I made a program to find out what happens to the data queue that I fill up with the LDA for analysis by Wilbert. Nothing after position 120 (about) arrived on the PC side. In the end we found that Progress stumbles if it encounters H’00’ in the data of a data queue. This is something Wilbert must decide on. We can scan and replace the H’00’ at runtime before sending or we can make sure the LDA is filled without H’00’ in the expected places.

I searched but could not find any fault in our programs that could generate the French error on invoice printing. When I checked the data in France I could not find the records that correspond with the screen print that was sent. I mean I found the invoice and order but the data were correct and not displayed as in the printout. Later, with the help from Jan Geurts who is in France, I found the job log and dumps and I found the local program that caused the dump. In the source of that program I see no problem and the dump seems not possible on the reported line with the reported data. This is a new Mystery.

The chimney was away and all the rubble was cleaned up when I came home. The workers did a fast job but not really a good or clean job. They placed a window where the chimney ad been but they didn’t centre it in the opening so now there is no way to finish off the interior wood panelling symmetrically. While clearing out the rubble they damaged the wood around another window and pulled deep scratches in the roof tiles on the outside. While I know some damage is almost unavoidable a little bit of attention and carefulness could have prevented most of it.

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If you add wet to yesterdays weather you describe today's condition.

I fixed the split order problem because it is urgently required in Austria. It got shipped together with a few other PRS items. I only tested it superficially but I ame quite confident. We’ll see.

The French problem got solved as well. That is I passed on what they must do, the error was in the local program so they must solve it themselves. see PRS11553 for the technical detail. It was really a simple error that every one makes now and then. Only if they had tested their program they should have seen it. But then testing is not fun so why should you do that when you can call someone when things don’t work.

One of the other French problems is no problem at all. Well not a computer problem, it’s just the user that doesn’t read the manual. Something changed in a print program so we did send the print program and the printer file to France. Of course we don’t know on which printer they want the output so when they install, the correct printer must be assigned to the form. The default is a print spooler that simply stores the output until it is (manually) assigned. I must check this with the OLI team but I think this requires just a local intervention.

I started on the third French problem but I didn’t actually got into it. That will wait till tomorrow.

Well it did rain heavily and the attic stayed dry so the job was done good enough. The damage is just superficially so there is nothing wrong really. Except dust, it is everywhere. They used a pneumatic drill and hammer and also a power flex. Because of the rain they had to keep the windows closed most of the time so the dust couldn’t get out. Instead of brown and white wooden surfaces everything is grey. I spent about two hours with the vacuum cleaner just to get the floor more ore less cleared. Over the next few days I‘ll do the shelves and beams. And the floor again and again. And when everything is done I assume I can start all over again.

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The weather is very stable, it stays unsettled.

Jan Geurts came around in the afternoon but only TeleSales stuff was discussed.

I completed the Local Exits programs on the AS400 and prepared the PRS for it (11531).

I checked with OLI on the French problem that is not a problem. There is a standard method of handling such cases in OLI but the Order confirmation program is not an OLI program even though it uses an OLI name. Building that method in would cost quite some time because it is quite involved (and flexible). The alternative is to assign a printer to the program directly. I composed a message to Francis so he can decide.

I did nothing on the attic but tomorrow is a holiday so I’ll find me some time then. I brought back a kilo of asparagus for 5 guilders. They are less thick but just as tasty.

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I spent about 3 hours vacuuming the attic. And, after the noon, 3 more hours dusting off all the shelves and the floor with damp cloths. At least the dust is gone now. Except in one area that is stacked full of stuff. When Peter is home we will clear all that so I can get at it for cleaning.

After vacuuming I invested over an hour in peeling asparagus. As I said yesterday, they are less thick but just as tasty. Being less thick means there are more of them in a kilo so it takes more time to peel. I tried a 'thin peeler' but that didn’t work well. I used a potato peeler but this has a support running behind the blades. Potatoes have a flexible unstructured skin that easily passes over or under that support, the peelings of asparagus are long and fibrous. These fibres catch on the support and block the passage so you have to clear them out every few slices. There exist 'thin peelers' that don’t have such a support but I don’t have such one. Next time I’ll buy my asparagus at least one size up.

After the noon we made hard wafers .

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I have the honour, again, of being CSC manager. Because yesterday was a public holiday most people take a day off creating a four day weekend. There'll be less traffic of course.

First off with a strange problem. Herman Broeckx logged to the NLOCE003 without problem. When he tried to open a second session he could not log on. His user profile was disabled. The first session worked normal. When he logged it off he couldn’t get on again. I enabled his user profile and everything was normal again.

Raf Jambon wanted a PRS to be sent to Norway. The third stage from the SND menu took a very long time while building access paths for various files (in various libraries). I find a whole bunch of job logs for the program sent over (RJD016R) but no actual errors, I’ll leave the job logs in place. Probably everything went as expected.

I have to change the PRO025CL and PRO026CL to call up the right OLE programs and to put the correct return in the data queue. I thought I had finished the Local exits on Wednesday but I forgot one of the detail.

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Shopping.

At last I found a querty keyboard, a space saving Cherry RS6000 unit. It has a soft mushy feel which I don’t particularly like but it is almost silent and has two full size shift keys. It did cost me 1099BEF (27.34Euro). I just notice it doesn’t have an euro key :)

I also brought back 2 DIMMs of 64Mb each and a hard disk of 6GB for the new system I am planning.

Back home I made asparagus rolls which turned out to be delicious.

The rest of the day was lost on chores.

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I extended the running again, it’s back to about 5km again.

I converted Miona from Linux to Win98. The installation went all right again. The first time I installed Win98 I only did it to make sure all the hardware worked, now I want to use the system to transfer my Windows work away from Harper. I want to dedicate Harper for OS/2 in a server role. Another reason is that I am using Windows more and more and the space on Harper is a bit cramped. So. I started by replacing the PCI card (S3Virge) with the original WinFast AGP card. I kept the old Potec connected for installation. After installing I swapped displays and connected the LG (via the server switch). In the display properties settings I tried to set the display to 1024x768 but whatever I tried I couldn’t get Win98 to even try the switch. I then inserted the WinFast CD to install the drivers and get the resolution up to the LG native. The auto run from Windows promptly picked up the CD, started Install shield and crashed. That is it presented an error box: ‘Severe 0000 0813’ there is an OK button (although I don’t think an error is ever OK). When clicked the CD spins for about 15 seconds and repeats the error. There is no process in the task manager associated with the error and the error itself prevents Windows from shutting down. Rebooting (reset button) with the CD inserted seems the only way to access it. I eventually got the Win95 driver installed. I find it astonishing that there are no Win98 drivers on the CD, I got this card 4 months ago. With the driver installed and a few reboots to get it to present itself in the settings page I can actually select other resolution and colour depths. Everything above standard 8bit VGA however is ´out of range´ for the LG display. After finding and installing (twice) the LG monitor installation diskette I could get the resolution up to 800x600 at 16bits. Anything higher is rejected by the screen. Harper, can use the LG in 1024x768 at 16bit colour both in Win98 and OS/2. The WinFast manual ( leaflet ) shows screens to change settings like the refresh rate, image size and colour balance (as well as TV output settings and DVD parameters) but none of these is available under Win98. Tomorrow I’ll try with the Yakumo display (the 17inch CRT) and/or with the Matrox card. Tuesday I’ll try to download new drivers from Leadtec.