On 2020-07-04, at 23:08:31, Keven wrote: > > 2-byte RLD entries are correctly handed by the link-editor/binder and > as far as I know they aren’t deprecated. Why would their use by Pl/I (to use > your example) perturb you? > My understanding is that Q-constants are offsets into an obtained storage area. PL/I places pointers to global objects in such an area. SAS/C chose to place the objects themselves in that area. CMS Loader supported only 2-byte Q-constants, severely limiting the total size of SAS/C global objects.
Didn't PL/I also (previously?) limit subscripts to 16 bits? Storage was costly. > On Sat, Jul 4, 2020 at 7:57 PM -0500, "Seymour J Metz" wrote: > > The default length of a Q-type constant is 4, although early PL/I compilers > used QL2. I don't know whether Enterprise PL/I still uses QL2; I hope not. > It's not perturbing if the compiler allows the programmer the option of 4. Nowadays, 8 might be desirable. -- gil
