Once each user in the multi-user group has configured Caesar II for personal status files, we can avoid "stepping" on each other when accessing a common data directory. However, a CII file may be concurrently accessed by multiple users. Is there anything we can do to send a notification to the subsequent users that the file is currently accessed by another user? At this time, it appears as though the file save is being managed by "real time." This could set up a situation whereby we may be overwriting each other's edits without knowing that someone else is in the process of editting the same file.

At the present time, CAESAR II doesn't know multiple users are working on the same job. When a user starts the piping preprocessor (the input module), the existing job file is read in and closed. All work is done on a <em>memory image</em> of the job file. When the users saves the data, the job file is opened and the memory image written into it.

We will have to re-visit this mechanism, and possibly change the program's operation to accomplish this <em>notification</em> ability.

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Regards,
Richard Ay (COADE, Inc.)