The sundial SIG held the third of four installments on using macros with Mesa 2. Again the instructor was Rollin White.

Before the lesson began the homework was reviewed. Depending on how the macro writer understood the problem the solutions ranged from a one line command to several lines. While all solved the same problem the longer ones had the potential of more flexibility or were just plain bloated. It was voted that Melanie Chernoy had the shortest solution and was awarded the prize of an OS/2 keychain.

The lesson described a way to open the config.sys file, parse it into five sections (BaseDevice, Device, Set, Rem, and Other), and display the driver and its parameters in Mesa. Each of the five sections were displayed on a separate Mesa sheet with the sheet tab titled with the section name.

Because the config.sys file was to be broken into five sections a way was needed to store the data after it was parsed. It was pointed out that REXX's stem variable would be an elegant solution. Therefore, some time was take to make sure all attendees were up to speed on stem variables.

There will be no meeting in May, but in June the final session on Mesa macros will be held. That session will also include insight on using the real time feed feature of Mesa. There'll be no homework so there should be no fear in attending.

See y'all there.

Examples and Handouts From Past Meetings

• ConfigSys.M2 - Mesa spreadsheet and macro for analyizing your CONFIG.SYS
• Handout 3 from the April meeting.
• InvoiceWizard.M2 - Mesa spreadsheet and macro for creating simple invoices
• Homework hanout from the March meeting
• Handout 1 and Handout 2 from the March meeting.