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+= Vos Goals
+
+Taken from CoSort Technical Specifications.
+
+Legend:
+
+* - : unimplemented
+* + : implemented
+* = : on going/half done
+* ? : is it worth/why/what is that mean
+
+
+== Ease of Use
+
+(-) Processes record layouts and SQL­like field definitions from central
+data dictionaries.
+
+(-) Converts and processes native COBOL copybook, Oracle SQL*Loader control
+file, CSV, and W3C extended log format (ELF) file layouts.
+
+(-) SortCL data definition files are a supported MIMB metadata format.
+
+(-) Mix of on­line help, pre­runtime application validation, and runtime
+error messages.
+
+(-) Leverages centralized application and file layout definitions
+(metadata repositories).
+
+(=) Reports problems to standard error when invoked from a program, or
+to an error log.
+
+(-) Runs silently or with verbose messaging without user intervention.
+
+(-) Allows user control over the amount of informational output produced.
+
+(-) Generates a query­ready XML audit log for data forensics and privacy
+compliance.
+
+(=) Describes commands and options through man pages and on­line
+documentation.
+
+it's half done because the program is always moving to a new features.
+it's not wise to mark this as 'done'.
+
+(-) Easy­to­use interfaces and seamless third­party sort replacements
+preclude the need for training classes
+
+
+== Resource Control
+
+(+) Sets and allows user modification of the maximum and minimum number of
+concurrent sort threads for sorting on multi­CPU and multi­core systems.
+
+Using PROCESS_MAX variable.
+
+(+) Uses a specified directory, a combination of directories, for temporary
+work files.
+
+Using PROC_TMP_DIR variable.
+
+(+) Limits the amount of main and virtual memory used during sort
+operations.
+
+Using PROCESS_MAX_ROW variable.
+
+Since input file size is unpredictable and a human is still need to
+run the program, the amount of program memory still cannot decide by
+human. What if it's set to 1 kilobytes ?.
+
+(+) Sets the size of the memory blocks used as physical I/O buffers.
+
+Using FILE_BUFFER_SIZE variable.
+
+
+== Input and Output 
+
+(=) Processes any number of files, of any size, and any number of records,
+fixed or variable length to 65,535 bytes passed from an input procedure,
+from stdin, a named pipe, a table in memory, or from an application program.
+
+- TODO: from stdin
+- TODO: from a named pipe.
+- TODO: from a table in memory.
+- TODO: from an application program.
+
+(?) Supports the use of environment variables.
+
+(=) Supports wildcard in the specification of input and output files, as
+well as absolute path names and aliases.
+
+- TODO: supports wildcard in the specification of input files.
+
+(+) Accepts and outputs fixed­ or variable­length records with delimited
+field.
+
+(?) Generates one or more output files, and/or summary information,
+including formatted and dashboard­ready reports.
+
+(-) Returns sorted, merged, or joined records one (or more) at a time to an
+output procedure, to stdout (or named pipe), a table in memory, one or more
+new or existing files, or to a program.
+
+(-) Outputs optional sequence numbers with each record, at any starting
+value, for indexed loads and/or reports.
+
+
+== Record Selection and Grouping
+
+(=) Includes or omits input or output records using field­to­field or field
+constant comparisons.
+
+TODO: field-to-field comparisons
+
+(-) Compares on any number of data fields, using standard and alternate
+collating sequences.
+
+(+) Sorts and/or reformats groups of selected records.
+
+Using SORT and CREATE statement.
+
+(+) Matches two or more sorted or unsorted files on inner and outer join
+criteria using SQL­based condition syntax.
+
+Using JOIN with '+' or '-' statement.
+
+(-) Skips a specified number of records, bytes, or a file header or footer.
+
+(-) Processes a specified number of records or bytes, including a saved
+header.
+
+(-) Eliminates or saves records with duplicate keys.
+
+
+== Sort Key Processing
+
+(+) Allows any number of key fields to be specified in ascending or
+descending order.
+
+	using SORT x by x.f1 ASC; or
+	using SORT x by x.f1 DESC;
+
+(+) Supports any number of fields from 0 to 65,535 bytes in length.
+
+Almost unlimited, the limit is your memory.
+
+(+) Orders fixed position fields, or floating fields with one or more
+delimiters.
+
+(-) Supports numeric keys, including all C, FORTRAN, and COBOL data types.
+
+(-) Supports single­ and multi­byte character keys, including ASCII, EBCDIC,
+ASCII in EBCDIC sequence, American, European, ISO and Japanese timestamps,
+and natural (locale­dependent) values, as well as Unicode and double­byte
+characters such as Big5, EUC­TW, UTF32, and S­JIS.
+
+(-) Allows left or right alignment and case shifting of character keys.
+
+(-) Accepts user compare procedures for multi­byte, encrypted and other
+special data.
+
+(-) Performs record sequence checking.
+
+(+) Maintains input record order (stability) on duplicate keys.
+
+(-) Controls treatment of null fields when specifying floating
+(character separated) keys.
+
+(-) Collates and converts between many of the following data types
+(formats).
+
+
+== Record Reformatting
+
+(+) Inserts, removes, resizes, and reorders fields within records; defines
+new fields.
+
+(-) Converts data in fields from one format to another either using internal
+conversion.
+
+(-) Maps common fields from differently formatted input files to a uniform
+sort record.
+
+(=) Joins any fields from several files into an output record, usually based
+on a condition.
+
+Using JOIN statement. current support only in joining two input files.
+
+(-) Changes record layouts from one file type to another, including: Line
+Sequential, Record Sequential, Variable Sequential, Blocked, Microsoft Comma
+Separated Values (CSV), ACUCOBOL Vision, MF I­SAM, MFVL, Unisys VBF, VSAM
+(within UniKik MBM), Extended Log Format (W3C), LDIF, and XML.
+
+(-) Maps processed records to many differently formatted output files,
+including HTML.
+
+(-) Writes multiple record formats to the same file for complex report
+requirements.
+
+(-) Performs mathematical expressions and functions on field data (including
+aggregate data) to generate new output fields.
+
+(-) Calculates the difference in days, hours, minutes and seconds between
+timestamps.
+
+
+== Field Reformatting/Validation
+
+(-) Aligns desired field contents to either the left or right of the target
+field, where any leading or trailing fill characters from the source are
+moved to the opposite side of the string.
+
+(-) Processes values from multi­dimensional, tab­delimited lookup files.
+
+(-) Creates and processes sub­strings of original field contents, where you
+can specify a positive or negative offset and a number of bytes to be
+contained in the sub­string.
+
+(-) Finds a user­specified text string in a given field, and replaces all
+occurrences of it with a different user­specified text string in the target
+field.
+
+(-) Supports Perl Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE), including pattern
+matching.
+
+(-) Uses C­style “iscompare” functions to validate contents at the field
+level (for example, to determine if all field characters are printable),
+which can also be used for record­filtering via selection statements.
+
+(-) Protects sensitive field data with field­level de­identification and
+AES­256 encryption routines, along with anonymization, pseudonymization,
+filtering and other column-level data masking and obfuscation techniques.
+
+(-) Supports custom, user­written field­level transformation libraries, and
+documents an example of a field­level data cleansing routine from
+Melissa Data (AddressObject).
+
+
+== Record Summarization
+
+(-) Consolidates records with equal keys into unique records, while
+totaling, averaging, or counting values in specified fields, including
+derived (cross­calculated) fields.
+
+(-) Produces maximum, minimum, average, sum, and count fields.
+
+(-) Displays running summary value(s) up to a break (accumulating
+aggregates).
+
+(-) Breaks on compound conditions.
+
+(-) Allows multiple levels of summary fields in the same report.
+
+(-) Re­maps summary fields into a new format, allowing relational tables.
+
+(-) Ranks data through a running count with descending numeric values.
+
+(-) Writes detail and summary records to the same output file for structured
+reports.