If PL/I does this, it will probably be well understood by PL/I programmers, but maybe not by others. Rexx has its own way, which will probably be well understood by Rexx programmers, but maybe not by others. System Symbol coders may belong to one or both of the above groups or to none of them. So in this case it is safest to assume nothing and apply the rules strictly, i.e. assign correctly or abend.
Kees. -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Gilmore Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2014 16:47 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: System Symbols Question There is now long experience with the PL/I convention that assigns a source string that is longer than the [maximal allocated or declared] length of the target string with 1) truncation on the right and 2) silently. It works well, at least where it is understood. Complaints about it among PL/I programmers have not occurred with any interesting frequency. I am happy that Peter Relson notes that the adoption of just this convention is being considered for system symbols. About Peter's other reactions to my posts I have only one comment. I am a sworn enemy of the C nul-delimited string of "conceptually unlimited length ". I am not an enemy but rather a friend of the halfword [or, in principle, fullword] current-length prefixed, i.e., PL/I character varying, string, that may have any length L in the interval 0 <= L <= X, where X is the allocated or declared maximal length and for halfword prefixes X <= 2^15 - 1 = 32767. 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 ******************************************************** For information, services and offers, please visit our web site: http://www.klm.com. This e-mail and any attachment may contain confidential and privileged material intended for the addressee only. If you are not the addressee, you are notified that no part of the e-mail or any attachment may be disclosed, copied or distributed, and that any other action related to this e-mail or attachment is strictly prohibited, and may be unlawful. If you have received this e-mail by error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, and delete this message. Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij NV (KLM), its subsidiaries and/or its employees shall not be liable for the incorrect or incomplete transmission of this e-mail or any attachments, nor responsible for any delay in receipt. Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. (also known as KLM Royal Dutch Airlines) is registered in Amstelveen, The Netherlands, with registered number 33014286 ******************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
