I don't pretend to know anything about managing a COBOL production shop but I have managed a successful software product development company (assembler, C, Rexx, and VB, primarily) and my policy always was "if you re-compile or re-link anything for any reason whatsoever, even with exactly the same compiler, you run the entire regression test suite before shipping (which is the software company equivalent of 'putting it into production.'" You just never know. How can you be really, truly sure that the source code has not been changed in some way? Some macro? Some COPY code? Some compiler default option? Some environmental variable?
I would certainly test the heck out of anything I re-compiled with a new compiler. And FWIW, I would vote against "routine" re-compilation in general. If it ain't broke, why fix it? Logically, in the LE environment, it makes no logical sense to re-compile simply because you got a new compiler. The old object code used to run well with your existing LE; why would it stop doing so just because you installed a new compiler? It might *conceivably* make sense to re-compile everything if you got a new compiler AND a new release of LE. I would think the cost of re-testing and/or the risks of unexpected problems would far out-weigh the benefits of "routine" new compiler re-compilation. I suspect most shops agree - that's why there are so many copies of 5740-CB1 OS/VS COBOL still in use out there - gosh knows how many years after a better replacement was available. Charles -----Original Message----- <snip> IBM certainly "attempts" to insure that (assuming the SAME compiler and run-time options) that "old and new" compiled code will: A) yield the same results B) "perform comparably" <snip) (to me - and YMMV) if you do a mass recompile, then you really, REALLY need to do extensive performance AND "same result" testing - at least for a fairly large "sample" of programs/applications. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
