Re: [GNU-COBOL] PIC -> edit masks -> a standard largenumericrepresentation

["David L. Nicol" <david@kasey.umkc.edu>]

Boris Kortiak wrote:
> 
> DN-
> I'm talking about internal to the running, compiled program.  I think
> sacrificing memory footprint for ease of development is the right thing
> here.  Implementing a "cobol scalar" on top of some other general
> purpose
> data type like a MFC "string" or a perl scalar, and tieing that object
> with a tightly formatted little data element that represents the PIC
> for that datum looks like a reasonable way to go for internal run-time
> data handling.
> 
> BK-
> Ok,  if I got this... The PIC part of the structure would then let you
> know what types of actions can be performed on the number, what
> significant digits are available.  I don't know if 8 bits would
> be enough...

Right, me throwing around structure sizes is premature.  The idea
I want to get across is to have a base type with two pieces,
one to hold data and one to hold type, in order to simplify other
parts as much as possible.  Based on the remarkable ease the "perl 
scalar" (or a Lisp token) offers in comparison with the umpteen+
different incompatable types one has to finesse in C. (or asm.)





_______________________________________________________
               David Nicol 816.235.1187 nicold@umkc.edu
      Vendor extensions are quicksand -- Chad Slaughter

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