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  News and updates for Synergy/DE Developers :: March 18, 2010
 
 
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS

Synergy/DE 9.3.1a patch is available

Synergy/DE 9.3 is released
UPCOMING EVENTS

SPC 2010 is coming to Sacramento October 4-8
 
IN THIS ISSUE
 
An Ounce of Encryption is Worth a Pound of Cure
Network Encryption with xfServer
By John Brunett, Senior Software Engineer,
& Mark Cooper, Lead Systems Programmer

Synergy/DE Tech Tip
Error when defining TRUE and FALSE

Quiz
Synergy/DE pros, see if you can answer this question!

Platform News
Read a selection of recent articles

Synergex Holiday Reminder
We will be closed April 2 in recognition of Good Friday
 
 
   
An Ounce of Encryption is Worth a Pound of Cure
Network Encryption with xfServer

By John Brunett, Senior Software Engineer, and Mark Cooper, Lead Systems Programmer

In a world where sensitive and confidential information is stored and transferred daily, you need to have confidence that your data is secure. Synergy/DE 9.3 has new encryption capabilities that will enhance your application’s data security. In this series of articles, we’ll start by discussing network encryption for both xfServer and xfServerPlus, then move on to data encryption.

Network encryption, as the name suggests, encrypts only data transferred across a network. That is, encryption and decryption occur only on the network; the actual encrypted data is never seen by the application. Network encryption is available with both xfServer and xfServerPlus. In this article, we’ll go over some of the network encryption basics that apply to both products, and then we’ll discuss how to use encryption with xfServer. In the next issue, we’ll go into detail on using encryption with an xfServerPlus application when connecting to an xfNetLink .NET or xfNetLink Synergy client.

With the new network encryption options, you can configure a server to either accept or demand encrypted transfers. We call these options SLAVE and MASTER modes.

> read the full article




Synergy/DE Tech Tip
Error when defining TRUE and FALSE

Question
I receive a "Not a compile-time expression" error (NOTCEXP) when I define TRUE and FALSE as shown in this example. Why?

.include WND:tools.def
.ifndef true
record
   true ,d1 ,1
   false ,d1 ,0
.endc

Answer
As of version 9, TRUE and FALSE are no longer defined in the tools.def file, but instead rely on the implicit execution of %TRUE and %FALSE. Because TRUE/FALSE are no longer defined in tools.def, the variables true and false in the example above come into scope. With tools.def using TRUE as an initial value, the compiler can no longer assume that TRUE should implicitly execute the routine %TRUE, and it tries to use the variable true, resulting in the error.

To fix the code above, all you have to do is add .DEFINEs for true and false, like this:

.define TRUE 1
.define FALSE 0
.include WND:tools.def
.ifndef true
record
    true ,d1 ,1
   false ,d1 ,0
.endc




Quiz
Synergy/DE pros, see if you can answer this question!

What is the most efficient way to sort a sequential file containing 12,000 records of 1024 bytes each?

a. Read the records into an array and use XCALL QSORT

b. Use the SORT command

c. Create an ISAM file with the appropriate key structure, and load it using a READS/STORE loop

d. Spawn the fconvert utility to create an ISAM file from the sequential file


Click here for the answer and explanation.




Platform News


Windows
Microsoft to Double Down on HTML5 With Internet Explorer 9

FIX: A Performance Issue in Which You Run a Query by Using a Fast Forward Cursor in SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008


OpenVMS
OpenVMS Technical Update Days





Synergex Holiday Reminder
We will be closed April 2 in recognition of Good Friday

If you anticipate needing our assistance on this day, please contact us to make arrangements.