Art & Science

5 Error Messages

Error messages appear on the display and serious errors also appear on the printer, that is, those that suggest that transactions may not have been carried through the system. Printed messages are time-stamped.

All messages are in plain English and there are no numeric codes. Messages which are only informative are not listed here but may aid trouble-shooting, should this become necessary. Whenever Art & Science are contacted in connection with any screen message, please supply the system version number, the message and the colour it was displayed in, as this speeds diagnosis.

In the messages below, angle brackets contain the type of field which will be displayed, which indicate the specific type of error.

5.1 Fatal error messages

These messages require the system to be stopped and investigated at a system level or physically. (Normally, the system attempts to re-start if it has closed itself down, having detected a problem).

Fatal messages are normally followed by a request to 'hit any key to exit' and this should be done after noting down the screen display and the colour of the diagnostics.

5.1.1. Missing D2ASI configuration file.

Restore the file and re-start.

5.1.2. Not enough memory for output buffer

5.1.3. Not enough memory for input buffer

Hardware failure. Try re-booting the PC first. If that fails, re-load the system and driver software on another PC and re-start. Investigate the memory error or call an engineer.

5.1.5. Your Dealing link is down

Nothing was detected on the Dealing 2000 line. Check first whether the plug has fallen out. Then alert the engineers. If the server is left connected, it will restore the service to the users automatically if the link comes up again.

6 User messages

The user terminal library is described in the ASL Network API User Guide.

6.1 User to D2ASI - Sign-on

<KSOP_CON><binary1>USER=BATCH<ETX>

The name corresponds to their Dealing 2000 identity, as the deals must be matched to the dealer's BTS terminal. The user should not do any transactions before a confirmation message has been received. This is of the format:-

<KSOP_CON><binary1>TXT=Sign-on confirmation<ETX>

Note that a field list of zero is not allowed, to avoid binary zeros in the data stream. Text messages can be sent in any message to D2ASI, which will display them on the screen and log them if required.

6.2 User to D2ASI - Sign off

<KSOP_DISCON><binary1>

TXT=This is Joe's Sign off<ETX>

6.3 User to D2ASI - Request a deal

Sent by the dealer when a deal is required.

<KSOP_QUERY><binary0 <ETX>

6.4 D2ASI to User - Send a deal

<KSOP_ADDUP><binary 1>DEAL:<D2DATA structure><ETX>

If there is no deal to send, the error message for no data is sent. This is:-

<KSOP_QUERY><binary 1>ERR=<GOOD_NDA><ETX>

6.5 Error messages

Refer to the file 'aslib.h' where all errors are listed, together with a comment on their severity. These comments are:-

6.5.1 Fatal

This type of error denotes a serious malfuction of the system, such as the LAN not being connected or IPX not running. Investigate the problem before re-running D2ASI.

6.5.2 Unimportant

These errors reflect upon user procedures and do not impact the running of the system.

6.5.3 Very odd - inform ASL

These errors 'should not happen' and suggest inadequate resource allocation within the system.

6.5.4 Try again later

The system will not accept transactions (including user sign-on) until it is signed on logically to the network.

6.5.5 Sign on

The system will not accept a user request until the user has signed on with their name

6.5.6 Report to Reuters

..if too many of these appear. Dealing 2000 is a much better service than GLCS but there are sometimes persistant line problems, as the Reuter-to-Dealing 2000 connexion is asynchronous serial.

6.5.7 User program error

Probably fatal. If the D2ASI cannot recognise an operation code, the operation code in the return message is the 'do nothing' code KSOP_NOWT.

Contact: Ken Baldry at Art & Science,
17 Gerrard Road, Islington, London N1 8AY
Head office:+44(0)20 7359 6294 or e-mail him
This page's URL: http://www.art-science.com/Computer/D2ASI/ch5.html

User Guide for D2ASI, ASL Dealing 2000 and Citicorp ASI server for Thomson Financial Services DOS system