Appx-IO Support

Add new encoding types to alpha fields, RAW, NATIONAL, and UNICODE.

Overview

The Encoding Type attribute of an alpha field determines the format of the alpha field within a record of an APPXIO disk file.

• RAW
  • Indicates that the alpha field contains "raw" bytes of data.
• UNICODE
  • Indicates that the alpha field contains 32-bit characters encoded using UTF-32 encoding.
  • Each character requires 4 bytes of space in the record.
• NATIONAL
  • Indicates that the alpha field contains 8-bit Unicode characters encoded using the encoding method specified in SYSPARM, SYSDFLT, or SYSDIR.

When an Appx-IO record is read from disk, the file manager will convert the record buffer from its external disk format to its internal memory format.

• RAW
  • Does not require any reformatting or transcoding.
  • The internal byte length of a raw alpha field is the same as the external byte length on disk.
• UNICODE
  • Does not require any reformatting or transcoding.
  • The internal byte length of a UTF-32 alpha field is the same as the external byte length on disk.
• NATIONAL
  • Will be converted from the external 8-bit encoding specified in SYSPARM, SYSDFLT, or SYSDIR to our internal UTF-32 encoding. Each 8-bit character is converted to the corresponding ITF-32 internal character.
  • The byte length of the field in memroy is 4 times the external byte length.

When an Appx-IO record is written to disk, the file manager will convert the record buffer from its internal memory format to its external disk format.

• RAW
  • Does not require any reformatting or transcoding.
  • The internal byte length of a raw alpha field is the same as the external byte length on disk.
• UNICODE
  • Does not require any reformatting or transcoding.
  • The internal byte length of a UTF-32 alpha field is the same as the external byte length on disk.
• NATIONAL
  • Will be converted from our internal UTF-32 encoding to the external 8-bit encoding specified in SYSPARM, SYSDFLT, or SYSDIR. Each 32-bit internal character will be converted to the corresponding 8-bit external character.
  • The byte length of the field on disk will be 1/4th of the internal byte length.
  • The file manager will return a False condition on a WRITE or REWRITE statement if the internal UTF-32 characterless can't be converted to an equivalent 8-bit character.

Test Plan:

FMS Types: (untested)

Test Requirements:

Do all encoding types seem to work properly?

Do NATIONAL encodings honor encoding settings?

Test Results and Notes:

untested

-- PeteBrower - 2011-03-09