Re: exception handling for intrinsic functions

From: William M. Klein (wmklein_at_nospam.netcom.com)
Date: 04/16/04 

Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 21:03:12 GMT

SHARE has a "generic" requirement - but it explicitly acknowledges the fact that
implementing the "whole" 2002 Standard is a LOT of work and needs to be "phased
in". Therefore, SHARE has a bunch of individual requirements that give
"priorities" on which features we want implemented first.

I would think that WAVV might find this useful too. On the other hand, (given
past experiences) my GUESS is that IBM would implement COBOL features first
under z/OS - then under (recently previewed) z/VSE. I think that the VSE COBOL
is still "sourced" based on an earlier OS/390 compiler. 

-- 
Bill Klein
 wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com
"Frank Swarbrick" <Frank.Swarbrick@efirstbank.com> wrote in message
news:c5org9$447bj$4@ID-184804.news.uni-berlin.de...
> Thanks for the input.  I'm considering writing a WAVV requirement to
> implement (as much as possible, anyway) the 2002 COBOL standard.  I can't
> imagine it would be useful to make a separate requirement for each little
> feature of the new standard, can you?  I mean, while there's some of it I
> don't care much about there is also a huge number of new features I'd like
> to see implemented; the ones you mention being two of them.
>
> Frank
>
> >>> William M. Klein<wmklein@nospam.netcom.com> 4/15/2004 4:27:51 PM >>>
> First, what happens with Intrinsic Functions given invalid inputs for an
> ANSI/ISO '89 conforming compiler is UNFORTUNATELY "undefined".  It fact,
> some
> compilers are relatively forgiving and some are really QUITE unforgiving.
> IBM
> (all of the compilers that I know) is (again unfortunately) in the latter
> category and tends to ABEND when it happens.
>
> The ISO 2002 COBOL Standard "fixes" this in two ways:
>
> 1) In general, there are "exceptions" raised - that can be tested and
> handled -
> within a program for ANY intrinsinsic function "feed" an invalid argument.
>
> 2) For many (not all) of the Intrinsic Functions there are new "TEST-xxx"
> functions.  This includes all the NumVal-xxx and Date functions.
>
> Frank - you and I have discussed (off-line) what to do about COBOL (and LE)
> "requirements" and VSE.  However, your VSE group, might be interested in
> two
> SHARE requirements.
>
> - SSLNGC0313599 "2002 ISO COBOL - TEST-xxxx Intrinsic Functions"
>   (this requirement was submitted last year and received a user priority of
> 3.1
> of a possible 5)
>
> - SSLNGC0413611 "ISO 2002 - Common exception processing"
>   (this requirement is currently "Out for Vote"
>
> Implementation (by IBM or any other vendor) of BOTH of this specifications
> would
> "solve" your problem quite nicely.  Without them, you are required to
> "parse"
> (using all the argument rules) all your arguments - which pretty much
> defeats
> (IMHO) the benefit of the Intrinsic Functions.
>
> If you need any detail on the current requirements (so they can be
> submitted
> against IBM VSE compiler) let me know off-line.
>
> -- 
> Bill Klein
>  wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com
> "Frank Swarbrick" <Frank.Swarbrick@efirstbank.com> wrote in message
> news:c5m7bn$3dl1p$1@ID-184804.news.uni-berlin.de...
> > Can someone point me in the right direction to a section of a manual that
> > describes how to handle when an intrinsic function is called with invalid
> > data.  For instance, I do the following:
> >
> > move "1 23.4" to my-string
> > compute my-val = function numval-c(my-string)
> >
> > This causes an LE COBOL runtime error of:
> > "IGZ0152S Invalid character 3 was found in column 5 in argument-1 for
> > function NUMVAL-C in program TEST6 at displacement X'0402'. From compile
> > unit TEST6 at entry point TEST6 at compile unit offset +00000402 at
> address
> > 0060047A."
> >
> > I guess my main question is, must I pre-validate my data before calling
> the
> > function or is there some way I can "capture" the run-time error and send
> a
> > sensible error message to my user?  If the latter, how (in general) do I
> do
> > it?
> >
> > I am using IBM COBOL for VSE/ESA, but I'm sure IBM Enterprise COBOL for
> z/OS
> > et al are similar, so answers based on that product would probably be OK.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >
> > --- 
> > Frank Swarbrick
> > Senior Developer/Analyst - Mainframe Applications
> > FirstBank Data Corporation - Lakewood, CO  USA
>
>
>
>

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