Re: [GNU-COBOL] Yet Another Grammar question

[Fred Mobach <fred@mobach.nl>]

Laura Tweedy wrote:

> [The example in question]
>
> > ADD 5 TO FOO
> >         ON SIZE ERROR ADD 3 TO BAR
> >                       ACCEPT BAZ
> >                       ADD 9 TO OTHER
> >         NOT ON SIZE ERROR PERFORM SOME-PAR
>
> > I seem to have overlooked the hard part.  This is a truly nasty
> > example and is more than worthy of official clarication.  The problem
> > is that the NOT ON SIZE ERROR phrase in your second example would
> > seem to legitimately belong to ADD 9 ...
>
> As I read the standard, the ADD statement can only appear in the SIZE
> ERROR clauses (and other imperative-statement locations) when it appears
> "Whithout the optional ON SIZE ERROR and NOT ON SIZE ERROR phrases".
> So, the NOT ON SIZE ERROR PERFORM SOME-PAR can only be matched with the
> very first ADD, that being ADD 5 TO FOO.

Exactly, that's the way it works.

> A lot about the sentence vs. statement has been cleared up, but I guess
> I should state my reason for asking about imperative-statement in the
> first place.  I would *really* like there to be a terminator at the end
> of any statements that are to be executed when the ON SIZE ERROR
> condition occurs.  That is, I would much rather have the above example
> look like:
>
> ADD 5 TO FOO
>          ON SIZE ERROR ADD 3 TO BAR
>                        ACCEPT BAZ
>                        ADD 9 TO OTHER.  <- or END-ADD
>          NOT ON SIZE ERROR PERFORM SOME-PAR

It's a pity, but in Cobol a sentence is composed of one or more statements and
is terminated with a period. And the END-ADD (in COBOL85) is optional and only
needed if one or more conditional clauses are used in a structured sentence. I
understand why you would like a terminator in those places but it's not
conforming the COBOL syntax.

Regards,

Fred Mobach
fred@mobach.nl




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