From: "John Gilmore" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 9:31 AM
PL/I was robbed of FIXEDOVERFLOW for binary fixed values.
Use SIZE instead.
It is still available for PL/I decimal fixed, i.e., packed decimal values. The LE does in fact make a facility available for executing what is in efffect an arbitrary SPM instruction; but it is documented so poorly---It has been all but hidden---that it is difficult to use. When binary FIXEDOVERFLOW is important I now do the arithmetic in an assembly-language subroutine.
Use SIZE instead. SIZE is raised for fixed binary overflow.
This a is a pity, a disagreeable consequence of the fact that much PL/I implementation machinery is now shared with C; but it must be conceded that there have been benefits too, e.g., for select groups that are exact functional equivalents of licit C switch statements, which are now better optimized than they once were.
