How annoying if &A=-20, T'&A is not 'N'?

[John Gilmore]

I am not sure that I fully understand your post.  On the assumption
that you have a macro definition something like the skeletal

|         macro
|         MCGUFFIN &a=
| . . .
|         mexit
|         mend

and such a macro instruction as

|         MCGUFFIN  A=-20

try using the HLASM bif D2A (p. 350 of the LR for version 1.6 of the
HLASM), as in

|&ac       setc   '&A'                     --editable character value
with any sign
|&aa       seta   D2A(&ac)           --signed arithmetic value

within the macro definition.

This is tedious, but it should resolve your problem.

John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA