New System Variable *VISUAL_LANSA

Date:	20 February 2002
Product/Release:	Visual LANSA / LANSA for iSeries
Abstract:	A new system variable called *VISUAL_LANSA has been introduced to distinguish between program execution on LANSA for iSeries and Visual LANSA
Submitted By:	LANSA Technical Support
Last Review:	November 2010

It has been a common programming practice to use the *CPUTYPE system variable to distinguish between traditional LANSA on the iSeries and Visual LANSA. This is usually via RDML code or conditions that check that *CPUTYPE is not equal to AS400 eg *CPUTYPE *NE AS400' 

To allow better distinction between traditional LANSA and Visual LANSA RDML, a new system variable was introduced in V9.1. The new variable is an alpha(1) called *VISUAL_LANSA. It always evaluates to N when the function is running on LANSA for iSeries, and Y when running on any of the Visual LANSA platforms.

Note: Eventually (possibly even for V10), some of the options / commands that are currently invalid in Visual LANSA may become supported just for Visual LANSA for iSeries. In this case, *CPUTYPE *EQ AS400 could be used to distinguish code.