Re: [Fwd: gnubol: Record delimiter clause and parse order]

["Theodore J. Seward, Jr." <tseward@compuserve.com>]

Tim,

1.  How do I upload the software?

2.  Are there extra standards beyond the GNU standards that were
established for the COBOL compiler routines that I should follow,
e.g. special arguments that should be present, debugging options,
special routine naming conventions, etc.?

3.  Since VB file record lengths are stored in binary, they will have to
be transferred to and from an IBM mainframe in binary.  Trying to
translate them to ASCII on transfer would destroy the descriptor words.
With this in mind, I could supply you with a separate tool to translate
ASCII / EBCDIC.  I guess it should have the ability for the user to
indicate where IBM packed decimal and binary (fixed & floating) are
present in the records so they can be converted as well.  Any comments
on this?  Perhaps the user parameters should be in the form something
like a COBOL record layout so it knows the exact locations, e.g. input
"PIC S9(4) COMP-3" to "PIC S9(4)".

4.  I just downloaded the "GNU Coding Standards" by Richard Stallman,
last updated June 1, 2000 at:  http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards.html

5.  I just downloaded the LGPL as you specified, which I assumed was the
"GNU Lesser General Public License",  Version 2.1, dated February 1999
at:  http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/lesser.html

Thanks Much - Ted Seward


Tim Josling wrote:

>
> Ted,
>
> Yes please do so, very useful. Bear in mind the following
>
> 1. Follow GNU coding standards which you can get from www.fsf.org
> 2. Can you structure the code so that it can be used as a
> standalone utility and as a set of routines to call from the
> Cobol runtime.
> 3. C not C++.
> 4. Licence under the LGPL to allow the above (see www.fsf.org for
> details of the LGPL licence)
> 5. Try and make the code work regardless of the big/little endian
> nature of the CPU you are using.
> 6. Publish your code as you go, even when rought and incomeplete
> (like my compiler:-)).
>
> Sorry about the delay in replying.
>
> Happy to answer any questions.
>
> Much appreciated,
> Tim Josling
>
> "Theodore J. Seward, Jr." wrote:
> >
> > Ralph,
> >
> > I got on the gnubol mail list to watch the status of the GNU COBOL.  I saw your comments on VBS (Variable Blocked Spanned) Records.  I've dealt with the file off and on over the past 20+
> > years (assembler, cobol, PL/1, etc.).  It would be easy for me to give you a set of I/O routines to read / write the IBM variable block record types in C.  Their main use would be to
> > convert files being FTP'ed to or from an IBM mainframe (I doubt people would use this format unless they had to).  If you would like, I could package it as a batch utility that could be
> > used to convert files to or from this format, kind of a bridge.
> >
> > If I can be of any help in this regard, please let me know.  Of course, the routine and/or utility would have the free software GPL license on them.
> >
> > Good Luck - Ted Seward
>
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