Re: gnubol: Name is Select/Assign clause

[Matthew Vanecek <linuxguy@directlink.net>]

"William M. Klein" wrote:
> 
> I was just cleaning up some old notes and read this.  FYI, on IBM mainframes
> (today), *EITHER* a "data-name" or a "literal" in the Select/Assign clause
> points to a DDName.  (actually, on CMS, there is a way to "convert" it to a
> physical file name - but that is fairly unusual.) OTOH, in Micro Focus
> (MERANT) COBOL - if you have a literal, it is always a "physical file" name
> (the thing known to the operating system - this may or many not "assume" the
> local directory).  But a data-name may *either* point to an environment
> variable - or a data-name (in Working-Storage - for example) that had the
> physical file name as its value.  Which of these last two options is meant in
> Micro Focus COBOL - depends upon a compiler directive.
> 

AFAIK, to have the identifier point to an environment variable, you have
to use the EXTERNAL keyword, and to have the identifier point to a
Working-storage member, you have to use the keyword DYNAMIC, in the
ASSIGN clause (separate from the ACCESS clause--two allowable DYNAMICs.
:( ).  In MicroFocus, anyhow. We code all of our SELECTs that
way--either EXTERNAL, or more commonly, DYNAMIC. (e.g., ASSIGN TO
DYNAMIC 300-FILE-NAME).  We may or may not want to support that (I
suspect we would, since it's a small addition).  CMS was a beast of a
different color--I only  ever saw it in school environments.  Here, we
use the de facto JCL DD statement.  Gotta love that JCL! ;)


> P.S.  If possible, would people please not use "MF COBOL" to describe EITHER
> "Micro Focus COBOL" or "Mainframe COBOL" - as it does tend to be ambiguous.

To me, it's always beem either "MF COBOL" or "COBOL II" or simply,
"mainframe".  But, I don't do a whole lot on the mainframe these days
(although, I suspect it's just a temporary lull in the storm. :/ ).  Why
don't we designate MF to mean Microfocus, and MVS or whatever for the
mainframe? 

Damn the semantics! Full speed ahead!
-- 
Matthew Vanecek
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