John, If the GENERAL issue of IEEE floating-point is of concern to you (or your clients), submit a "REQUEST" via your IBM marketing support and reference the existing SHARE requirement to add this support.
As far as Java goes, from http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/igy3lr30/6.2.22.7 " Java floating-point data is represented in IEEE floating-point, while Enterprise COBOL uses the IBM hexadecimal floating-point representation. The representations are automatically converted as necessary when Java methods are invoked from COBOL and when COBOL methods are invoked from Java." So this should be a non-issue If you ARE finding problems with the "automatic conversion" then I would think that IBM would want to know about this. "john gilmore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>... > As many of you know, IBM Enterprise COBOL supports only single- and > double-precision IBM hexadecimal floating-point (HFP) data types. In > particular, it does not support extended-precision HFP or any of single-, > double-, or extended-precision IEEE binary floating-point (BFP) values. > > Moreover, it would be fair to say that this support is scarcely missed: Few > COBOL programmers would make spontaneous use of it if it were available. > > Java, on the other hand, makes heavy, very heavy, use of BFP, often in > situations in which it is not even apparent to a naif Java programmer that > it is doing so. My experience in trying to interface a new Java subsystem > with some existing COBOL routines was thus discouraging. > > It was not possible to avoid the use of HLASM interfacing/transmitter > routines, which are not maintainable by COBOL or Java programmers, in order > to do so. > > In the upshot I have had to recommend to my client that it avoid any future > use of COBOL in many situations; and, while this does not greatly distress > me personally, it does suggest that that the issue of what COBOL should > support is more complicated than many discussions of this issue here have > suggested. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
