[GNU-COBOL] edit program qs? (was PIC)

[Chad Slaughter <slaught@advancenet.net>]

Randall Bart wrote :>
>
>though some are tediously detailed.  The most tedious of all is PICTURE.

I would agree.

>Which brings up a question:  Has anyone written a Cobol edit program?  In 

what is this?? I dont understand what this progrma is doing. Could
you please explain?  
I have never used cobol on a mainframe.

>olden times, when I wrote mainframe compilers, we were always compiling for 
>specific edit op-codes, and the details were always different.  Failing to 

edit op-codes??

>customize your PIC handling for the features and deficiencies of the 
>underlying edit language was a tremendous performance hit.

??? could you elaborate. =)

>Performance of an edit routine is no longer an issue, especially in an 
>interpretive back end.  What we need is a standard program something like this:
>
>     edit <value> <pic> [-b] [-s[l|t][s]]

this looks possible, but I have no idea what it is doing. if you could
elaborate more on it, i am sure we can pound one out real quick like. =)


-- 
Chad Slaughter  -- slaught at advancenet.net

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