Exception processing, while a good idea in my opinion, is one of those things from the 20xx COBOL standards that I have decided to not as IBM to implement. The COBOL standard implementation seems to be quite lacking. There seems no way to "wrap" code that might throw an exception inside a block any smaller than the program level. User-defined exceptions are always non-fatal and don't even need to be "caught", so it appears to me that an invoking program would ignore one by default. I'd love to be proved wrong.
________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of Bill Woodger <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2016 3:45 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: COBOL Unbounded Loops: A Diatribe On Their Omission From the COBOL Standard (and a Plea for Understanding) Keeping it COBOL, there is some masterful documentation relating to the probable conceptual origin of try/catch (COBOL's DECLARATIVES) * However, there are bits of the concept which were left out: "A declarative procedure can be performed from a nondeclarative procedure. A nondeclarative procedure can be performed from a declarative procedure. A declarative procedure can be referenced in a GO TO statement in a declarative procedure. A nondeclarative procedure can be referenced in a GO TO statement in a declarative procedure. You can include a statement that executes a previously called USE procedure that is still in control. However, to avoid an infinite loop, you must be sure there is an eventual exit at the bottom. The declarative procedure is exited when the last statement in the procedure is executed." * this statement may include an assumption with which others disagree ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
