The notion that input data are not in an internal floating-point format, be it BFP, DFP, or HFP, is unarguable. This is also true of binary integers. Indeed there is our at least should always be a distinction between external. displayable|printable values and internal, coimputationally convenient.
Some of the input data I work with are in classical engineering notation, e.g., +1.414213256237309504880e+000, Some are external fixed-point, e.g., +1.414213256237309504880, some are external integers, e.g., -5, and some are pairs (a,b) of one of these that represent the complex number a + bi. They are all converted into the appropriate internal format, readily, and stored as such in files or RDBs. Conversions occur only at input and output, display or report preparation. Thus <begin extract> To go from character string to a format that can then be converted to DFP requires, at the least, a PACK instruction. </end extract> is almost aways an entirely correct but unproblematic truism. (There is an ancient model of a computer system that is said to 1) read in an integer augend, 2) add anoither integer added to it, and 3) output the resulting sum; and for such 'systems' many conversions may be intolerably burdensome; but such systems are not really of much interest.) I, and I am not alone in this, find the idea of doing arithmetic on display values absurd. COBOL notionally permits this, but only by sleight of hand. The to-and-fro conversions are hidden away in library subroutines. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
