Re: COBOL

From: Binyamin Dissen (postingid_at_dissensoftware.com)
Date: 12/23/04 

Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 14:56:15 -0500

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:00:38 +1300 "Pete Dashwood" <dashwood@enternet.co.nz>
wrote:

:>"TammyBain" <baint@cityofrochester.gov> wrote in message
:>news:781a5bf97064111bb1fb057deb0cb1a0@localhost.talkaboutprogramming.com...
:>> I can't find any documentation on assign statements with
:>> -UT- in them. Does the 'UT' stand for Unit Tape or Utility Tape?

:>The UT stands for "Utility". In the very olden days, before disks were
:>invented and freely available, this was tape. Later, replaced by disk
:>drives, these "utility" devices were available for any kind of storage
:>requirement. The UT was not about a physical device, it was about the
:>logical use of a physical device, i.e. as a "Utility".

More precisely it defined a device that could be "rewound" and reprocessed,
but could not be processed by block number.

UR defined a device that could not be re-processed.

DA added the ability to randomly access blocks.

In Ye Olde Days the DCB (file descriptor) for a device will less capability
used less memory. 

--
Binyamin Dissen <bdissen@dissensoftware.com>
http://www.dissensoftware.com
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