Re: Migrating from SQR 2.5 to SQR 4 on VMS, using InSQRibe

[Don Mellen <donm@ONTKO.COM>]

On Mon, 20 Apr 1998, Michael DeAngelo wrote:
> 3.  We have a library of over 400 SQR reports, many of them very complex.
> What are the issues in running these reports in SQR 4 instead of SQR 2.5.

There are 2 main issues that I'm currently aware of.

1. Expanded Numeric Types: This is something you need to be aware of for
changes. The behavior of numeric calculations can be different in v4. The
default is to act like v3.0.  In old programs running under 4.0...
  let #var1 = (2 / 4) * 6     results in #var1 -> 3
  let #var2 = (2. / 4.) * 6.  results in #var2 -> 3
If you alter or write a new sqr, and you use the new "declare-variable"
command with a default-numeric of integer or float, the results change...
  let #var1 = (2 / 4) * 6     results in #var1 -> 0
  let #var2 = (2. / 4.) * 6.  results in #var2 -> 3
Other ways this can change are the -DNT comand line flag and the
default-numeric setting in the sqr.ini file.  These last two have a
setting option of v30 which can be used to "make it act like 3.0".

2. Dates:  Because of the new Date data-type, there can be some places
where errors pop up in older programs.  The one I've seen is using
"date-time" at the begining of a program and later using the &var where it
expects a string (which in v4.0 it's not).  Also date-time can no longer
be used inside a begin-select.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Donald Mellen  | Ray Ontko & Co. - Richmond, IN - http://www.ontko.com/
donm@ontko.com |  "In the beginning, there was nothing, which exploded"