On Wed, 22 Jan 2014 11:27:40 -0500, John Gilmore wrote: >Tom Marchant wrote > ><begin extract> >There might be cases where an 8 character symbol name won't work. For >example, when a symbol represents a volume serial number used for >indirect cataloging ></end extract> > >and here he seems to me to be confusing the length of a symbol's >identifier with that of a symbol's value.
I don't think so. When a static system symbol is used in indirect cataloging, the symbol is stored in the place in the catalog where the volume serial number would otherwise be stored. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I thought that there is only room for a 6 byte value in that location. >&CHARVAL8, for example, can have a value less than eight characters in >length, even a nul value; True >and conversely the [dubious] symbol &s can >have a value more than one character in length. Yes, but static system symbol &S cannot have a value longer than two characters in length. Or more precisely, in the IEASYMxx parmlib member, when specifying SYMDEF(&symbol='sub-text'), the length of sub-text cannot exceed the length of the symbol, including the '&'. -- Tom Marchant ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
