Assembler language and Assembler Macro language are 2 separate languages & manuals. Both have variables and symbols but they are very different in concept. In Assembler, symbols have a diverse use, one of which is variable names. On the other hand in the macro language, symbols and variables are not related at all. The only macro symbol that comes to mind is sequence symbols (e.g. AGO .SYMBOL). Because of the period, a macro variable name cannot become a symbol. If I remember correctly, in certain situations, a sequence symbol can include a variable (e.g. ago .LABEL&VAR).
As for omitting the & in variable declarations, don't do it to be consistent. IBM can't change this behavior in the Macro language because it would break existing code. Moral of the story, treat Assembler and Macros as 2 separate languages. There are a couple of situations where the distinction becomes a little blurred but it's usually obvious. On Wednesday, June 28, 2023 at 07:46:55 AM PDT, Seymour J Metz <[email protected]> wrote: Yes, it's legal, no, it's not an ordinary symbol in a [LCL|GBL]x, and yes, it's confusing. IMHO it would have been better to accept it but issue a warning. ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List <[email protected]> on behalf of Joseph Reichman <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2023 10:09 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Variable symbol without leading & Hi Just looked at the doc for LCLC says for variable symbol says can be with or with out leading & I did try to assemble a symbol without leading & and it did a assemble however I would think without the leading & it’s an ordinary symbol However when I tried to do a SETC against it I got a assembly error So my question becomes if you can declare a variable symbol without a leading & But cannt SETC what can it be used for
