Prophet

Enterprise-wide Actuarial Modelling

Data Conversion System

31 Aug 2017
Release 9.0 Update 4
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United Kingdom Doc No: DCS-0904-0817-0100     Rev: 22743   8/25/2017 : 7:39:13 PM
DCS Bulletin 1

DCS Bulletin

Introduction 2

System Support 4

DCS 9.0 Update 4: Enhancements 7

DCS 9.0 Update 4: Addressed issues 9

DCS 9.0 Update 4: Known issues and limitations 11

.
DCS Bulletin Introduction 2

Introduction
This bulletin gives a brief summary of the improvements made to the Data Conversion System (DCS) for Release 9.0 Update 4.

Data Conversion System

The Data Conversion System (DCS) is an application which enables you to convert the contents and format of data stored in a
range of formats: Prophet and Glean files, delimited, fixed ASCII, both fixed and delimited ICL EBCDIC, Excel and database
extract files.

DCS can produce per-policy output files for use in individual policy Prophet calculation runs or as input into Prophet data
grouping runs. You can also use DCS to produce grouped model point files for use in Prophet nested structures calculation runs.

DCS also forms part of Glean where it is used to create data files containing the exposure information necessary for mortality,
lapse and claim analysis.

In addition, DCS can create text files (with the output in fixed-width or delimited format), ODBC format files and comma-delimited
files in Prophet's model point file format. Stochastic scenario and nested scenario files can be created for use in Prophet nested
structures calculation runs. DCS can also create Externally Projected Asset files by calling third-party asset-valuation routines for
use in actuarial models.

By creating more than one output file and/or format from a program, you can produce an output file per product or product class
(that is, per Prophet product specification).

You can also create test model point files without any source data.

Further documentation
For more detailed documentation we recommend that you look at the Data Conversion System user guides. The DCS guides
include:

n Data Conversion System Installation Guide – Installation instructions, third-party software and hardware requirements.
DCS Bulletin Introduction 3

n Data Conversion System User Guide – detailed system reference guide primarily aimed at new users of Data Conversion
System.

The DCS user guides were updated for DCS Release 9.0 Update 4 and can be found on the Prophet Installation media.

For information on installing Data Conversion System Release 9.0 Update 4, follow the instructions in the Data Conversion
System Installation Guide.

Installation and upgrade assistance

Request the media containing the full installation of Data Conversion System Release 9.0 Update 4, then follow the steps in the
Installation Guide.

n It is important to install a supported compiler on the machine before installing DCS. Details of the supported compilers follow.

n The installation process can upgrade existing installations - this removes the need to manually uninstall everything first.

n All currently installed packages must be upgraded together. This is due to the high level of interdependency between
packages. Users on different versions of DCS and Prophet can manually reinstall an older version of DCS after Prophet or just
update DCS on its own by using the specific DCS installer on the installation media.

n The installation media cannot be used to uninstall packages except as part of an upgrade of that package. To permanently
remove a Prophet package that is no longer required, use the Windows Control Panel to remove the individual packages.

n When installing new compilers onto a machine that already contains DCS, you must restart the machine before attempting
DCS calculations.

Note: Data Conversion System 9.0 Update 4 cannot co-exist with previous versions of the Data Conversion System.
DCS Bulletin System Support 4

System Support
The following provides information on the versions of compiler, plug-ins and other external applications that are supported by this
release.

Compiler support
The full list of compilers supported are as follows:

n Microsoft C++ Compiler 2013 installed with Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 for Desktop.

n Microsoft C++ Compiler 2015 installed with Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 for Desktop (including Express Editions).  We also
support the 2015 compiler update 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Note: We support the Express, Professional and Enterprise editions. We are unable to support the Code or Community
editions.

Note: With Microsoft's more aggressive release policy, we will no longer give notice that we will stop supporting a particular
version of the compilers. Instead we will ensure that between one Prophet Release and the next, there is at least one
supported compiler in common.

Intex support
Prophet 9.0 Update 4 and DCS 9.0 Update 4 support the following versions of Intex:

n 3.3h_p1

n 3.3i

n 3.4_p3

n 3.4a_p1
DCS Bulletin System Support 5

If using Intex versions 3.4_p3 and 3.4a_p1 a text file called “Intex_Key.txt” needs to be placed in the Intex CDI Directory specified
in the run setting. This file should contain two lines, the first with the company name and the second with the Intex user access
keycode.

Note: Only the Intex versions listed above are supported in this update.
There will be at least one version of these Intex versions that we supported with the previous version of Prophet. For instance
in Prophet 9.0 Update 3 we supported Intex 3.3h_p1. If you are using this common version we would advise that you still
upgrade to the Prophet 9.0 Update 4 supplied Intex 3.3h_p1 version.

Prophet 9.0 Update 1 introduced a new installer for Intex.  This installer allows us to send you multiple versions of Intex in one.
You choose which version of Prophet you are using and then which version of Intex you want.

Operating system support

Prophet 9.0 Update 4 supports the following desktop operating systems:

n Microsoft Windows 7

n Microsoft Windows 8

n Microsoft Windows 8.1

n Microsoft Windows 10

Note: Windows 7 will continue to be supported for all Prophet releases in 2018.

In addition, the following Windows Server operating systems are supported:

n Windows Server 2012

n Windows Server 2012 R2

n Windows Server 2016

DCS Bulletin System Support 6

Questions
If you have any questions regarding this document, contact the Prophet Service Desk: prophet.helpdesk@fisglobal.com.
DCS Bulletin DCS 9.0 Update 4: Enhancements 7

DCS 9.0 Update 4: Enhancements

The following enhancements have been made in DCS 9.0 Update 4.

Key features
n New functions added

n Generic table functions now support absolute file paths

n Options dialog improved

n Debugger enhancements

Calculations
New functions have been added to DCS which enable the reading of tables relative to the executable location:

n GET_EXECUTABLE_LOCATION: Returns a text value containing the full path of the current DCS program executable.

n GET_CURRENT_OUTPUT_FILE_PATH: Returns a text value containing the full path of the output file location.

The following functions now support absolute table paths as well as relative:

n GENERIC_TABLE_CLOSE

n GENERIC_TABLE_EXISTS

n READ_GENERIC_TABLE

n READ_GENERIC_TABLE_TEXT
DCS Bulletin DCS 9.0 Update 4: Enhancements 8

User Interface
The settings in the Options dialog box have been grouped by Workspace Options, User Options and Machine Options to make
it more consistent with other Prophet applications.

The DCS program name has been added to the title bar and taskbar so that you can distinguish between programs easier.

Input and output formats now appear in alphabetical order with sub-records and additional records as child nodes of their parent
main format.

Debugger
The DCS debugger has been improved to make it generally easier to use:

l Watches and panel state remembered on exiting and re-entering debug mode.

l Breakpoints automatically adjust when new lines of code are added in the code editor.
DCS Bulletin DCS 9.0 Update 4: Addressed issues 9

DCS 9.0 Update 4: Addressed issues

The following issues from previous releases of DCS have been addressed.

Calculations
n An issue which meant that a DCS run would fail if a dynamic array was set as a sorting/grouping variable in an output format
and passed into an OUTPUT_ARRAY_AS_CONSTANTS call has been resolved. This means that dynamic arrays which are
text variables can now be included in the output format.

n We have fixed an issue that caused scripts using arrays of size greater than 32768 to fail at runtime.

n An issue where RE_START was failing with additional record input formats has been fixed.

n The DELETE_EXISTING_OUTPUT_FILES function would not work if the program had no input files, this has been fixed.

n Using NEXT_RECORD as part of a procedure would move out of that procedure when processing the current record rather
than moving onto the next one. This has been fixed so that NEXT_RECORD now works correctly in procedures.

n We have fixed an issue where READ_GENERIC_TABLE was not correctly respecting the "Maximum number of runtime errors
before termination" value set in the Run Settings.

n Some issues with ODBC output to multiple tables have been fixed.

n Array out-of-bound resizing has been made more performant by using a geometric rather than arithmetic expansion algorithm.

User Interface
Improvements and fixes to the user interface include:

n Auto-refresh of various objects (such as the results tree) following a run.

n Debugger fixes:

l Watches pane shows correct values for multi-dimensional arrays.

l Panel resizing now correctly persisted on closing and reopening.

DCS Bulletin DCS 9.0 Update 4: Addressed issues 10

l Programs with modules now run without issue in the debugger.

n Modules improvements:

l The user interface was found to have issues handling modules with long file names; file names have now been restricted to
64 characters to prevent these occurring.

l Modules can now be opened without error from Windows Explorer.

n Categorisation of functions in the Function Wizard has been improved and a few cases where an incorrect function description
was being displayed have been resolved.

n The compile dialog is now modal, disabling the main user interface and preventing changes to compile-time dependent
program settings.

n The compile dialog edit button, available when selecting compile errors at the end of a failed compile or when viewing the
compile log, now consistently opens the code editor to the line number shown in the error.

n The User Interface is now partially and consistently locked down during a DCS run to ensure that actions that would attempt to
delete the running executable are not permitted.

n Case-insensitive check performed on creation of input and output formats to prevent duplicates being created.

n We have fixed an issue where clicking 'View Formatted' with an Excel input format open would cause DCS to error.

n Rename Variable functionality has been improved to prevent duplicate variables being declared or unintentional merging of
two variables into one.
DCS Bulletin DCS 9.0 Update 4: Known issues and limitations 11

DCS 9.0 Update 4: Known issues and limitations

A list of known issues and limitations of DCS Release 9.0 Update 4, as well as possible workarounds for them, is published on
the Prophet website.

http://www.prophet-web.com/support/known-issues/