Bill Klein wrote:
If you didn't upgrade your COBOL as well as z/OS, then I would be REALLY
surprised in this change occurring. The COBOL documentation talks about the
change from NODBCS to DBCS as the "default" compiler option - in newer
releases of Enterprise COBOL. There should ALSO be a change from FLAG(I) to
FLAG(I,I) so that these messages SHOULD have appeared in the source code
exactly by the line that had the problem.
FYI,
What the change from NODBCS to DBCS means is that *if* you have "hex" OD
and OE in your alphanumeric literals, they are treated as DBCS control
characters.
And I can't figure out why they made that change,
since DBCS is, supposedly, on its eventual way
out, to be replaced by NATIONAL (Unicode). Any
idea why the default was changed? Especially since
the vast majority of US shops do not even use
DBCS data?
NOTE WELL:
COBOL compiler messages (IGY) are *not* documented; they are
"self-documenting". If your application programmers can't figure out these
specific messages, I would suggest additional training for them.
Thanks, Bill, I think. But I agree with another
poster who suggested perhaps some messages are
not as self-documenting as the compiler writers
think they are. Maybe some training on English?
I guess the kind of training we (and, presumably
other training vendors) offer on COBOL would
provide the background for programmers to be
more likely to understand the messages.
If they
don't know WHY they are getting the messages now (but not before), then I
suggest you provide them references to the COBOL Migration Guide which does
talk about such changes (NODBCS to DBCS).
Finally, it does sound as if you may want to switch your site default to
NODBCS - unless you also have DBCS applications. The difference between
COBOL2 and COBOL3 compiler options MAY influence some of this, but isn't the
real problem with these messages.
Again, why the IBM-supplied compiler default was changed to
DBCS is a mystery. Or at least a curiosity.
Kind regards,
-Steve Comstock
The Trainer's Friend, Inc.
http://www.trainersfriend.com
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