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

["Boris Kortiak" <BKortiak@genlyte.com>]

>>> "David L. Nicol" <david@kasey.umkc.edu> 10/28/99 03:52PM >>>
Boris Kortiak wrote:
<snip> 
> 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...

DN-
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.)

BK-
Ok, lets kick around some ideas for this thing...

1) Primary division of data types is OTHER|EDITED
2) OTHER breaks down into ALPHABETIC|ALPHANUMERIC|NUMERIC
3) ALPHABETIC { PIC A(n) } only needs length parameter
4) ALPHANUMERIC { PIC X(n) } only needs length paramenter
5) NUMERIC breaks down into DISPLAY|COMPUTATIONAL
6) DISPLAY breaks down into WHOLE|DECIMAL|SCALAR
7) WHOLE { PIC 9(n) } only needs length
8) DECIMAL { PIC 9(n)v9(n) } needs length and decimal point information
9) SCALAR { PIC [9(n)P(n)|P(n)9(n) } needs length and decimal point information
10) SCALAR can be combined with WHOLE
11) SCALAR can be combined with DECIMAL

Am I on the right trail to enumerate what information the structure will need to keep?


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