On 17 Jun 2008 11:29:21 -0700, in bit.listserv.ibm-main you wrote: >>>With reference modification available, the only things that are >>>awkward in COBOL are bit switches and the 1 byte binary fields. I >>>have written usage programs that parse the SMF 14/15, 30 and 64 >>>records. If IBM would just implement the data types in the 2002 >>>standard including the new floating point usages as IEEE, COBOL the >>>above caveats would go away and COBOL would play nicer with JAVA. >>>COMP-1 and COMP-2 could be retained for hex floating point so a single >>>COBOL program could have both types of floating point. YES there is a >>>SHARE requirement for this. >> >>Java does not have Decimal Floating Point yet, and COBOL already plays >>very nicely with automatic conversion from Java float to COBOL float >>and back again with direct calls. In any case, it is off topic, there >>is no Decimal Floating Point data in SMF records that I know of. > >Tom, I was referring to the IEEE floating point which IBM should have >supported using the new usages as soon as the 2002 standard became >final. The automatic conversion has a cost which should be not have >been incurred in the first place. For SMF, I was referring to the >USAGE BIT and USAGE BINARY-CHARACTER (if I recall it correctly). By >the way, when is COBOL going to support the decimal floating point?
I see what I did, whenever people talk about 'new floating point' I always assume it is Decimal Floating Point (the one that is not available in Java yet, or COBOL for that matter. z9 and PL/I and have it) To make it more confusing both the Java binary float and the newer DFP are both IEEE floating point! http://www2.hursley.ibm.com/decimal/decimal.html One float is the one that Java has been using for years, and the newer one is Mike Cowlishaw's baby. That being said, we might not ever add the old IEEE floating point to COBOL, but we are looking at the possibility of adding the new DFP support to COBOL. Mike Cowlishaw feels that the COBOL 2002 Standard describes Desimal Floating Point, not the binary floating point that Java uses. Now I am so far off the original topic I changed the subject line! Now back to SMF records, we are also looking at adding USAGE BIT to COBOL as well, but people have been coding around that missing function in COBOL for years. Cheers, TomR >> COBOL is the Language of the Future! << ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
