Knowing nothing about DBCS or Unicode I have a silly question - is Unicode a superset of DBCS? If so, that would explain how you could need to specify 1 or the other, but 1 is required for the other one. Just an uneducated idea....
Rex -----Original Message----- From: Steve Comstock [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 1:36 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: DBCS as the "default" (was: Fw: Another OS/390 to z/OS 1.4 migration question (COBOL) Bill Klein wrote: > "Steve Comstock" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message > news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>... > <snip> > >>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? >> > > > NSYMBOL(National) *requires* (forces on) DBCS, so actually > having/allowing the DBCS option is a "pre-requisite" for having > Unicode support. Ah. Now that is just flat out wrong. The doc says it is NSYMBOL({NATIONAL|DBCS}) - that is, one or the other. Ahh, but wait. Same doc under "Conflicting Compiler Options", it says NSYMBOL(NATIONAL) forces on the DBCS compiler option. Now I'm really confused. Why would you set up a choice of NSYMBOL({NATIONAL|DBCS}) when setting NATIONAL forces on DBCS? Very nice. > > There are some long and "painful" internal discussions (between myself > and the IBM ANSI COBOL rep) and within the J4 group about exactly what > is "Standard conforming" behavior when you have "control characters" > within an alphanumeric literal. I won't go into them here, but I > semi-understand the IBM position that ALLOWING "national" character > strings within an alphanumeric literal is a "good thing" when you MAY > use X"0E" type notation > *if* you want to have those x'0d' and x'0e' within literals. > > The change in defaults WAS highlighted in announcements, migration > guides, and installation material - but what its IMPLICATIONS were - > are probably unclear to most programmers (application or systems). Yup. Kind regards, -Steve Comstock ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html E-MAIL CONFIDENTIALITY & USE NOTICE: The contents of this e-mail message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply e-mail and then delete this message and any attachments. In addition, you are strictly prohibited from using, disseminating, distributing, copying, or storing this message and any attachments. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
