On Mon, 12 Sep 2022 11:49:07 -0500, Charles Mills wrote: > ... >The file names are constructed by the program. Each file covers one month. The >user specifies a date range and the program constructs the appropriate file >names. It was getting the first one right but subsequent ones wrong. > Ah! A coding error.
> ... >The file names are constructed by the program and should never be perverse. >They are not user input. > Provided that you make no coding errors. Programmer's taste whether -21 from SYSCALL or ENOENT from open is more lucid. >I find the documentation very lacking in "big picture." > There's a facetious statement in the intro to the ALGOL-68 reference (roughly, from memory): "Since the syntax of ALGOL-68 is specified recursively, it is impossible to explain it until it has been explained ..." This applies to many languages. Consider DFSORT. > ... The examples are often nearly useless. Is that (FN) syntax documented > anywhere? I take it that the parentheses dereference FN so that the filename > is the value of FN, not "FN" literally. Is that documented anywhere? Is there > a SHARE presentation or anything like that that gives a big picture and some > seriously useful examples? > It's easy to find the answer when you already know it. I'll call this "Brin's Law". Many years ago, I asked the converse question on MVS-OE and WJS generously replied. <https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.5.0?topic=command-specifying-strings> ... A variable name enclosed in parentheses. Strings that contain both the single quotation mark and double quotation mark characters must be stored in a variable, and you must use the variable name. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
