You can generate a Pac Program or a Pac Screen either in
VA Pac or in RDz. If you generate a Program/Screen in VA Pac, you
obtain a complete generated code, which includes the design and the
specific code. If you generate a Program/Screen in RDz, you generate
the Program/Screen design only. If you put both generations in the
same directory, in RDz, the Pattern Driven Programming function will
clearly make a distinction between the generated code and the specific
code. You can then modify the specific code or add specific changes.
You can also modify the Program/Screen design and generate again.
The generation process will always keep your specific code, while
taking all the design modifications into account: this is called the reconciliation.
- If you create a Program/Screen
in RDz, you specify its design. in its dedicated design editor of
the the Design perspective (you open this editor
by right-clicking on the Program/Screen instance and select Open.
You can also double-click on the Program/Screen instance). Then:
- You must generate the Program/Screen in the Design
explorer view by right-clicking on it and selecting (or ). The generation
outputs a .cbl file, nested under the Program/Screen
instance. This file contains the Program/Screen design.
- To see and modify the generated code, click the '+'
symbol in front of the Program/Screen to expand it and right-click
on the nested .cbl file. Then select in the popup menu.
- In the editor which opens up, you can add specific code
to your Program/Screen. The next operations are explained below, from
step 4.
- You can also generate and work on a Program/Screen which
already exists in VA Pac. You must then perform the following steps:
- If you want to see and modify the Program/Screen design
in its dedicated editor, you must right-click on a Program/Screen
in the Pacbase explorer view and select .
This Program/Screen design then
becomes available in the Design explorer view
. Double-click on the Program/Screen to display it in its dedicated
editor.
This conversion step creates a .pacprogram file
for a Program or a .pacscreen file for a Screen,
in the Navigator view of the Design perspective.
The
same applies to Macros, for which the conversion step creates a .pacmacro file
in the Navigator view.
- You must generate the Program/Screen in VA Pac, in order
to obtain a fully-generated code which includes the Program/Screen
design and specific code.
- You must first see whether the Program/Screen calls Macros. If
it does, you must first generate these Macros in VA Pac. Generating
the Macro code is required before generating the Program/Screen. You
obtain a file which contains the tagged code of the Macro. You must
put this file (via a drag and drop or a copy/paste) in the Navigator view
of the Design perspective, in the appropriate
package (which corresponds to the VA Pac Database and library). This
file must have a .cblgen extension. Modify its
extension if it is not the case.
Tip: If the file which
contains the output of the VA Pac Macro generation contains the code
of more than one Macro, you are advised to use the Dispatch
macros choice, in order to create one .cblgen file
for each Macro. If you do not, the code of all the Macros contained
in the file will remain in this single file.
- Then you must generate your Program/Screen and put the generated .cbl file
(via a drag and drop or a copy/paste) in the Navigator view,
in the directory where the corresponding .pacprogram or pacscreen
has been created.
- You must then generate the Program/Screen design in
RDz. This generation is required and does not override the .cbl file
output by the VA Pac generation. To generate a Program/Screen in RDz,
right-click on it in the Design explorer view
and select or in the
popup menu.
This step outputs a .cblpdp file
in the Navigator view. This file contains the
metadata required by the Pattern Driven Programming (PDP) editor.
Once
you have performed both the VA Pac and RDz generations, the Pattern
Driven Programming function can differentiate the generated code (which
comes from the design) and the specific code. Then you can always
modify the design of a Program or a Screen which contains specific
code. After generating the Program again, the newly-generated code
will include the new design, while keeping the specific code. Moreover,
the locations of the specific code insertions will be moved to fit
the new design at best. This is called the reconciliation.
- To view the code and modify it, right-click on the .cbl file
in the Design perspective and select in the popup menu. You can then view
the Program/Screen:
- Generated code in the PDP COBOL editor. This editor offers additional
functions, on top of those already provided by the standard RDz LPEX
editor, which help you modify the code.
- Design as a hierarchical tree in the Pac Design View.
Dedicated wizards help you modify the Program/Screen design
- Generated nodes in the Generated Code Structure view
and accept or reject the choices made by the reconciliation.
- Structure in the Outline view.
All the inconsistencies, if any, found upon generation are
listed in the Problems view.
- If the generated code does not fully fit your needs,
you must modify it. Modifying the generated code includes inserting
code in the generated code, removing or overwriting parts of it. The
changes you make in the generated code are called specific changes.
When you enter a specific change in the PDP COBOL editor,
this change is immediately visible in the Generated Code
Structure view. Save the new code. If you want to restore
the originally-generated code, go the Generated Code Structure view
and select Restore generated code in the popup
menu. The Pattern Driven Programming function will then recognize
that the code corresponds to a generated code and will gray the corresponding
lines.
- To specify enhancements or correct bugs which require
changes in the design, you must go to the Pac Design View,
modify the design, save it and generate the program again to trigger
the reconciliation.
- Then go to the Generated Code Structure view
to see whether errors or warnings have been flagged by the reconciliation.
You must correct the errors, and deal with the warnings (that is validate
or reject the choices made by the reconciliation).