Re: gnubol: refmod again (fwd)

[Michael McKernan <mck@tivoli.mv.com>]

>>>>> "Randall" == Randall Bart <Barticus@att.net>
>>>>> wrote the following on Wed, 01 Dec 1999 15:07:40 -0800

  Randall> At 04:57 12/1/99 , J & C Migrations, Pty. wrote:
  >> Hi Mike!  Both you and Randall seem to have missed this one:
  >> (foo + 1) is a single index, (foo + 0 +1) is two indexes roughly
  >> equivalent to (foo 1), and the original (foo + 0 + 1) is
  >> illegal, because as you can see from the format you quoted
  >> below, the [+/- integer-2 ] is not immediately followed by
  >> "...", only the entire group of index specification options has
  >> this repeatition indicator.

  Randall> My read on COBOL-20XX: If foo is a data-name, this is one
  Randall> subscript.  If foo is an index, this is two subscripts.
  Randall> Isn't "+ 1" a valid expression?

We still speak '85, and I wasn't looking forward to yet another
context sensitive rule.  What happened to the attitude that COBOL
should be implementable on all classes of machinery?

  Randall> There's been some debate on the J4 list about making
  Randall> parameters of functions parse the same as subscripts, but
  Randall> there may still be anomalous situations.  The optionality
  Randall> of the comma will be a burden on COBOL for the foreseeable
  Randall> future.  Programmers are advised to use parentheses
  Randall> whenever there is doubt.

20XX where X > 0.  If they're proposing general expressions in
subscripts with no better provision for them than you report, maybe
it should be for large values of X.  I think they're straining at a
gnat on this one.  I'd offer the choice of expressions in subscripts
or invisible commas via a compile time switch or a pragma.  Can
anyone hazard a guess about the scope of the extraneous comma
problem?  Program editors have improved quite a lot in the last 40
years.



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