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Data Conversion

Trifox VORTEX and DesignVision thin clients use a special network protocol for data transfer. This network protocol handles both types of data conversion that can be required (and sometimes both at the same time):
  • Integer byte flipping between little-endian and big-endian machines.
  • Character conversion between ASCII and EBCDIC machines.
The conversion process usually takes place on the client, since it's likely to have more resources to devote to the effort. The only conversion that takes place on the server is when SQL statements need to be processed.

Here is a detailed look at how the conversion requirements are negotiated at connect time:

  1. A connect request is sent from the client. The network connect information sent is always in ASCII (even between two EBCDIC machines).
  2. On a successful network connection the server sends the byte-order and character set information to the client.
  3. The client sends character set information to the server.
  4. If the character sets differ the server sends a character conversion map to the client. This map is either a default (see below) or one pointed to by the environment variable VORTEX_CCMAP_FILE.
  5. Normal operations. Client does all conversions except SQL statement.
[ ASCII to EBCDIC Conversion Table ]

© 1985-2020 Updated 26 Sep 2005.