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TB010  HYDRA-II PROBLEMS WITH PROFS VERSION 2.2.3 IN APL MODE
 
               J.D.S. MicroProcessing Technical Bulletin             

Date Written: 08/02/89                   Submitted by: R. Sande     
    Sequence: 1 of 1                           FileID: 4.TB010      

                                                                        
            HYDRAII PROBLEMS WITH PROFS VERSION 2.2.3 IN APL MODE             
                         
                                                                        
    The latest version 2.2.3 of PROFS (Professional Office Systems),    
an application package from IBM, has a new feature where the user goes  
into mail mode and a box is displayed on the screen.                    
                                                                        
    This box uses a 3274 specific character set called APL that draws   
the upper and lower half of the box on the screen (Graphics escape      
control character X'08').                                               
                                                                        
    APL is a special high level programming language where you can read
in a file, sort it, and write it back out in about 10 characters of     
programming code. Since the HydraII does not support this APL language
(APL stands for "Another Programming Language") character set we are    
unable to support the box drawing option. APL requires at least two     
screen images of storage to contain certain graphics information when   
determining how a screen is to be listed out. For example, one screen   
is supposed to be the colors that are needed and the other screen is    
for the actual characters.

                                                                            SOLUTION: find out if there is a way to disable the function by     
making sure the HydraII is genned as a 3272 controller driving 3277    
terminals on the mainframe side. If the software package (PROFS)        
is smart enough, it will adjust itself accordingly. An alternate         
solution would be to add a few lines of code that will reject the       
APL statements and generate a command reject error to the host computer.
                                                                        
    Additional information may be obtained in the IBM 3270 INFORMATION  
DISPLAY SYSTEM / 3274 CONTROL UNIT DESCRIPTION AND PROGRAMMERS GUIDE    
#GA2300611.