Re: R:gnubol: Record delimiter clause and parse order

[Matthew Vanecek <linuxguy@directlink.net>]

DARI UMBERTO wrote:
> 
> As for what I remember, we have the following:
> 
> 1- On mainframe, drives the parameters : record length for fixed end the
> first four bytes for variable length

Don't know about that--Haven't dug up any IBM physical file layouts yet.

> 
> 2- On PC (MF or older MS Cobol), fixed length is always the same lenth BUT
> it has a record delimiter, variable has a record delimiter, LINE SEQUENTIAL
> has CR-LF
> 
> 3- ON MF cobol for Unix behaviour is similar to PC
> 

According to MF manuals, fixed length, sequential files have *no*
delimiter.  line sequential (an MF invention) uses the OS default line
delimiter (i.e., whatever would normally delimit lines in the prevailing
text editors for the OS--\n or \r\n usually).  Also, according to the MF
manuals, RECORD DELIMITER clause is *only* used for variable length
records.  And the draft standard's syntax diagram for the RECORD
DELIMITER is quite misleading--according to the text, this clause is
only for variable length records.

I think any deviations from this that people see are implementor
extensions.  I think the level of compliance we need to shoot for is
first ANSI compliant, and then COBOL II and MF supportive. IMO, that
gives us plenty to do for a long time to come. ;)
-- 
Matthew Vanecek
Visit my Website at http://mysite.directlink.net/linuxguy
For answers type: perl -e 'print
$i=pack(c5,(41*2),sqrt(7056),(unpack(c,H)-2),oct(115),10);'
*****************************************************************
For 93 million miles, there is nothing between the sun and my shadow
except me. I'm always getting in the way of something...

--
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.