Re: New Cobol compiler written in Cobol

From: Chuck Stevens (charles.stevens_at_unisys.com)
Date: 01/31/05 

Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 08:13:11 -0800

"Robert Wagner" <spamblocker-robert@wagner.net> wrote in message
news:54knv0lvfe8rllm1d38l0emi7js429t4jj@4ax.com...

> Whoops, I stand corrected. I thought it had to be a GOOD reason
> because the Standard says "are dependent on the functionality of the
> processor" and "dependent upon a terminal device capable of supporting
> them". A desktop PC is certainly capable, and variations of DISPLAY ..
> AT seem to be in common use in some cultures, notably AcuCobol.

More important than the text I believe you're referring to (ISO/IEC
1989:2002 page 696, B.3, Processor-dependent language element list) is the
citation at which "processor-dependent" is defined, namely, on Page 4,
3.1.5, Processor-dependent language elements. The last sentence of the
first of three paragraphs in that section says "The decision of whether to
claim support for a processor-dependent language element is within an
implementor's discretion. Factors that may be considered include, but are
not limited to, hardware capability, software capability, and marketing
positioning of the processor."

And "variations of DISPLAY ... AT" do not a standards-compliant, or even a
platform-independent, compiler make.

> If the compiler has a GUI tool, Screen Section does seem superfluous.

If the compiler has a GUI tool, that tool is almost certainly outside the
realm of standards compliance or portability. The presence of such tools is
one of the reasons the "green-screen" Screen Section was made processor
dependent. It was arguably OK when it was written, but by the time the
standard came out the green-screen interface was decidedly old-fashioned.
I don't know of any implementation offhand that provides a fully-compliant
implementation of the Screen Section without a whole lot of extensions that
make the "standards-compliant" part pretty much irrelevant in that
implementation.

    -Chuck Stevens

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