TrnsDt and WinCpTranslateString

For code translation between host and PC code pages, you have two alternatives, TrnsDt and WinCpTranslateString. (GET_CP_CONVERT_TABLE does not support DBCS.) The following information will help you decide which alternative to choose.

• TrnsDt uses the default code conversion tables of CDRA (Character Data Representation Architecture) and gives you the same result as 3270 File Transfer and EHLLAPI of DBCS OS/2.

• TrnsDt has an option to keep the pseudo SO/SI in PC code pages while WinCpTranslateString does not. This capability could be of use when you handle column-sensitive host data on PC.

• TrnsDt translates control codes to control codes as much as possible while WinCpTranslateString translates all control codes to the substitution character.

• When the target buffer is not long enough, TrnsDt returns an error code while WinCpTranslateString does not.

• WinCpTranslateString is for presentation manager applications and a common function to SBCS and DBCS OS/2 PM while TrnsDt can be called by any type of OS/2 applications though it is a DBCS OS/2 unique function.

• WinCpTranslateString supports translations between PC code pages while TrnsDt does not.

• The PC and host SBCS substitution characters of the TrnsDt are 7FH and 3FH respectively, while that of the WinCpTranslateString is FFH, the same as SBCS OS/2's. (Note the following exceptions: since the code page Japanese - PC Extended and T-Chinese - PC Extended have tilde at FFH, their substitution characters are 7FH.)