I am looking to find out if there is any standardized (i.e., not entirely compiler-version dependent) way to access these values. Yes, for a minimum of Enterprise COBOL V5.x one can use the LE Vendor Interfaces manual documentation of the PPA control blocks to extract at least some of this information, and one can probably (mostly) do so within a COBOL program using the "ADDRESS OF" and pointer capabilities but is there any other way?
Ideally there should be a set of "introspective" functions or "special registers" to extract information about the running program from within that running program. Currently all we have is the WHEN-COMPILED special register. The "business case" here is production batch runtime logging of what programs actually were called and when they were last compiled (and hopefully by whom). Historically this kind of logging requirement has been handled with SCLM-specific ways to store and display "last translation" information, but logging such information should not have to depend on vendor SCLM capabilities or lack thereof. I know it is probably an RFE/"Idea" that needs to be submitted, which would likely get rejected or infinitely postponed due to "higher priority" enhancements and "limited developer resources" (why is that anyway?), but if anyone here has any better information or ideas how to easily get such information I would appreciate hearing it. Peter This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
