On Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:35:40 -0500, Patrick O'Keefe wrote: >>... >>:>>I'd be quite satisfied with this _provided_ it was compatible >>:>>with the existing CALL, LINK, ATTACH, etc. argument lists. >>:>>I.e. on program entry R1 points to a fullword which points >>:>>to a halfword containing the length of the PARMX followed >>:>>by the PARMX string. >>... >It confirms that the end-of-parms flag must be set for parms >provided by JCL but also confirms that having both PARM and PARMX >would be misconstrued by those programs expecting an optional >list of overriding DDnames. This almost supports those saying that >only one parm - PARM or PARMX - must be allowed. Almost. > I believe I stated pretty clearly above that I'd expect PARMX to replace the first PARM, not be added as a second.
>A program (foolishly) written with the assumption that it will always >be invoked by via JCL with a 100-byte limit on parm length might >(foolishly) keep the length in a single byte. It *might* get by with >a max 255-byte parm but not a longer one. And when it abends >the owner (possible a vendor), not the JCL "coder", is probably >going to be called. > One of the merits of "PARMX" as opposed to "PARM" is that it would provide an obvious indication to that "owner" that that "coder" might be passing a longer argument string. >Whatever technique used to pass a long parm is not going to be >safely handled byt the old, standard parm passing scheme because >a long parm passed that way will break old, standard programs. >Some new technique that can be verified by new programs is >needed or a lot of stable production jobs are going to die. > No! Those programs will continue to work as they always have when supplied with the PARMs they've always worked with. When provided with longer PARMXs, they will fail (or work) as they always have when CALLed or ATTACHed from a program or EXEC with those same PARMS. It's trivial to CALL or ATTACH a program with a PARM of up to 32767 characters, yet I observe no consensus that SYS1.MACLIB(CALL) and Rexx should protect the aforementioned program owner by checking and restricting the length of the PARM to 100 characters (as TSO CALL dismayingly does). -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
