The Sorcerers Apprentice.

Hi,

I have been aware of the 'Varianted Source Code' models that Roger Griffith has made available for the community for quite a while and today with the release of version 1.1 which has C# client code support all ready for the GA Release of CA Plex 7.0.  We now have some additional sources :-).  FYI - I don't know when this is coming out but it can't be far away now :-).

See the link below.

http://wiki.plexinfo.net/index.php?title=Varianted_Source_Code_Solution_For_CA_Plex&oldid=4855

There are always Pro's and Con's of any approach but this solution seems pretty fair to me. Obviously, if you are a C++ and RPGIV typical client server customer and not changing in the near future then this post will be of little relevance (or is it - read on).  I can think of only one other small issue in that if you prefer to use triples for setting the language at a function level rather than variants then this might need some re-factoring.

If, however, you are planning on migrating your client (or server for that matter) to c# .NET/Java etc you may as well start to reduce your impact for the big move.  By replacing your own source code calls for the shipped code supported by the varianted models sooner in the process you can only win. Remember these are available NOW and can be used with Plex 6.1.

This only leaves your own 'personal' or 'application specific' source code.  A little like User Source in 2E sometimes these are just fit for a purpose and not migratable.  Others simply may need tweaking.  Not a bad time to do some impact analysis and determine whether you need to brush up on some C#.

Therefore, I have a small challenge for people.  If you have some useful generic Source Code.  Any language (Java, C++, RPG IV or C#), let's share it and see if others can convert it across all the platforms.  Then Roger and his team could keep the shipped models up to date and everyone's a winner.  For every routine that is sent to me I will PERSONALLY ensure that they are all converted to relevant C# code.  Any volunteers from the community to pick up C++, Java and RPG IV?  I can get these done but not as quickly I am afraid :-(.  This is courtesy of my bosses at www.sasit.co.nz. 

I'm thinking of advanced String routines like.

• Count xString occurs y times in zString
• Replace Double Spaces with single space
• IsNumeric?
• IsAlphaNumeric?
• PasswordStrength
• Is CharactersOnly
• CalculateStringLength
• ReserveString
• SentenceStyleCase
• IsEmailAddress?
• Replace xString with yString in zString
• GenerateRandomNumber (Start, Max, ZeroFill?)
• GenerateRandomString xLength

I'm sure that this list could get quite exhaustive (Suggestions welcome) but I am happy to co-ordinate this effort if people just add some stuff they want to share to the comments section.  So cut and paste some code and a description or just make a request.  

Thanks for reading. 

Lee.

P.S. Disclaimer - if code is Copyright please include and acknowledge source etc.

Community Links

Added a few links.  Lucio's site and Desynit's Feed Aggregator for Plex and 2E .

That's them.  The community ones.....

Tidied a few broken links whilst I was there. If you want yours added. Drop me a comment in the comments section below.

Thanks for reading.
Lee.

Translator for CA Plex project!!!

Translator required!   Übersetzer erforderlich!  Traductor necesario!  
Traducteur obligatoires!   Vertaler Verplicht!   Traduttore obbligatori!
翻译 ! अनुवादक आवश्यक!!  Þýðandi Nauðsynleg! Translator Kinakailangan!!
Traduttore obbligatori!   翻訳者は​​必要！

Some of you know that I have been working on a small project with .NET C# and the CA Plex Model API.  The project was for an entity creator and I have decided that I wanted to learn and understand a little more about localisation with this technology too.

Here is the link - Entity Creator Blog post.

Well the good news is that I worked it out...... The bad news is that I struggle a little with the actual translation.

I struggle with two areas.

1. Context - Everytime I type a small sentence or single word I get a few choices (Google Translate) which doesn't help me one little bit.
2. Plex centric words - I know that many of us use the Plex terms from an English perspective.  i.e. I assume we all know a parent child relationship as "Known By".

My call to the community is that I would like to internationali(s/z)e the entity creator before I aim to get it open sourced for the community to extend (if you want to), or to discect if that is also of interest.

So calling all German, Spanish, Danish, Indian, Tivolian or other language converters in the community to assist with the translation of around 40 or 50 literals.  If you are interested please email me via LinkedIn (See link on blog) or put a comment and your email (I won't publish it) and I will contact you.

Thanks for reading.
Lee.