Re: [GNU-COBOL] Re: Global files issues moot

["Chad Slaughter" <slaught@umr.edu>]

Mark E. Adelsberger wrote :>

>First, the error will have to be checked somewhere, and I see no reason

yes, I  know.

>why the runtime's debug mode shouldn't test for it.  Nonetheless, I'll

Because, the runtime is a bad place to check for the error which I brought up.
It needs/will be checked else where.

>write it whichever way I'm told to write it; there may be issues I don't

I am glad.

>follow here.  But, I will say that if this is, as it appears to me, just

There are issues which I haven't mentioned to others that are at work
here.

>a way to bury our heads in the sand and ignore the issue we were
>discussing, then it is a bad idea.

Well, thats not what I am doing. 

>Second, regardless of whether this is the correct behavior, it doesn't
>make the issue moot; it just puts more time between now and when the
>issue has to be resolved, and that's a poor excuse to stop discussing
>it.

Well, that is the point. Why spend time now for soemthing we don't need 
right now? Becuase we *might* need it in the future?? I don't think so.
**see extreme programming for justification of You aren't going to need it*

How about we just write up the opinions of everyone. Save them in
a design doc. When the issue comes up b/c someone needs it, we'll
talk about it then. I am not going to discuss the issue until its 
needed. I don't have time to argue about things that aren't needed.

>The issue, for those who weren't involved, was this:  It was suggested
>that the IO runtime should use assertions to ensure that the length

And this suggestion was determined to be wrong!
The runtime code should only check for limits that effect its
operation. In this case, length value... a negative value has no meaning.
This error should be checked. But why manual check something the language
can do for you. make the type unsigned. Thus its checked at compile
time.

-- 
Chad Slaughter  -- slaught at umr.edu
<PGP public key available upon request>

--
This message was sent through the gnu-cobol mailing list.  To remove yourself
from this mailing list, send a message to gnu-cobol@acm.cs.umr.edu with the
words "unsubscribe gnu-cobol" in the message body.  For more information on
the GNU COBOL project, send mail to gnu-cobol-owner@acm.cs.umr.edu.