Path: ...!news.mixmin.net!news.swapon.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail
From: rbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Rewriting SSA. Is This A Chance For GNU/Linux?
Date: 3 Apr 2025 07:28:07 GMT
Lines: 22
Message-ID: <m56rk6F83ouU1@mid.individual.net>
References: <pan$54963$b3f3d4e6$ae35ff46$71fe05c9@linux.rocks>
	<gXCdnTD2YLRBaHX6nZ2dnZfqn_idnZ2d@giganews.com>
	<m4tf1dFmvh3U1@mid.individual.net> <vsd0ui$365s0$1@dont-email.me>
	<JHudnUVvuNc823f6nZ2dnZfqnPWdnZ2d@giganews.com>
	<d41lujt571qvs8ksloa7q084fi7e7p7hnk@4ax.com> <vsgsgn$36mma$5@dont-email.me>
	<vsgtsq$3be4i$1@dont-email.me> <vsgvh2$36mma$8@dont-email.me>
	<Uf-cnVfuGfF4MnH6nZ2dnZfqnPGdnZ2d@giganews.com>
	<89k0clx62u.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <m55seiF36j5U1@mid.individual.net>
	<op.24eyy4ija3w0dxdave@hodgins.homeip.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: individual.net Kg8sNzF7dlKzjDQv/Kd4rAjsodPQ3KdblZhUgoswIWP+m9kfO5
Cancel-Lock: sha1:amkE15fiQE5lzbnqqmkfTYz+/AA= sha256:eryfdNJIVVrUsJp3qX3zyzajWpPONw9nDKAblE+Mcw0=
User-Agent: Pan/0.160 (Toresk; )
Bytes: 2261

On Thu, 03 Apr 2025 02:00:30 -0400, David W. Hodgins wrote:

> The data is in EBCDIC, not ASCII. Sequential files can be fixed or
> variable length. For fixed, the length of each record is specified in
> the file declaration, while for variable, the length is in the first
> bytes of each record. There is no character or combination of characters
> used to represent the end of a record.

I don't see any of that to be a problem. Until quite recently a mid-
western US state's criminal justice system used EBCDIC and the IBM 
protocol where the record lengths are specified in a known size hearer. 
When I wrote the interface it converted from ASCII to EBCDIC and vice 
versa on the fly. Lookup tables were necessary. I would hope all the data 
uses the same code page.

All this is business as usual when dealing with data. Again hopefully they 
have maintained uniformity over the decades and it is not the situation of 
the Obamacare roll-out that had to deal with many companies and agencies 
that march to their own drummer.