HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Switch Assist Tool Enhancements
by Alex Trujillo
Commercial Systems Division
The Switch Assist Tool (SWAT) allows users to generate switch stubs to
call compatibility mode procedures from native mode on an MPE XL HP 3000.
This new release of SWAT, version A.01.00, contains a variety of new and
improved functionality. The following is a brief description of the SWAT
enhancements and the benefits to users of the MPE XL 2.1 software
release:
* SWAT SCRIPT COMMAND FUNCTIONALITY. SWAT now recognizes and generates
a SWAT script, a small set of keywords describing a switch stub.
SWAT automatically creates a script (placed among the Pascal code
generated by SWAT) every time you create a switch stub. This new
functionality also allows you to generate a switch stub by editing an
ASCII file and creating a SWAT script. You can then use SWAT to
interpret this file and load the VPLUS screens so that a switch stub
source file can be generated. The new switch stub source file will
have a record of the "vplus session" and can later be used to pull
the switch stub source file back into SWAT so that it can be
modified. This functionality will simplify the task of generating
large numbers of switch stubs which are very similar and allow for
easier modification of existing switch stubs.
* PRIVILEGE LEVEL OF TARGET ROUTINE NO LONGER NECESSARY. SWAT no longer
requires you to specify the privilege level of the target procedure
on the PROCINFO screen. The switch subsystem has been enhanced so
that you no longer have to worry about matching privilege levels
between the stub and the target CM procedure. The benefit of this
enhancement is one less item to worry about when creating a SWAT
switch stub.
* ABILITY TO OVERWRITE EXISTING FILES. SWAT now allows you to
rename/overwrite a switch stub source file if it currently exists on
the system. SWAT will prompt you for action if the file exists on
the system. If you do not wish to reuse the file you can simply
rename the file. You no longer have to exit SWAT and purge the file
in order to reuse it.
* NEW FUNCTION KEYS ADDED. Two new function keys have been added: a
GOTO COMMIT function key and an ENTER MODE function key. The GOTO
COMMIT function key allows for an escape to the COMMIT screen from
most of the VPLUS screens. It allows for an immediate escape from
the current screen so that script generation can begin as soon as the
desired modifications have been made. The second key is the ENTER
MODE key and toggles ENTER MODE on or off when pressed. If the user
enables ENTER MODE, then the screen traversal keys (GOTO COMMIT, GOTO
MAIN, PREV, and NEXT) will act as if the user pressed ENTER before
pressing the screen traversal keys. If ENTER MODE is disabled
(default), then SWAT will only perform the function labeled on that
key. This new feature minimizes keystrokes during the error
resolution process.
* INSERTION OF SWAT VERSION AND STUB GENERATION TIME INTO SWITCH STUB.
The Switch Assist Tool now places compiler options into the switch
stub source which insert the SWAT version and switch stub creation
date into the SOM generated by the Pascal compiler. These compiler
options will record the source code generation date and the SWAT
version in the system object module (SOM) generated at compile time.
You can then use the VERSION program to extract and utilize this
information. This is beneficial to those customers who may have a
switch stub, but no switch stub source code and wish to isolate the
SWAT version which created it.
A detailed description of the enhancements is provided in the related
article in the "Technical Articles" section in this Communicator.