Jon, I've heard others make that remark before: HLASM is actually two languages. I find the distinction rather arbitrary - both aspects of HLASM are intimately interconnected.
As Mr. Metz correctly remarked, there is only a single Language Reference Manual for HLASM. I think that's for a very good reason. Try to split that manual into two separate ones, you'll find yourself facing boundary cases and many references between the two manuals. Kind regards, Abe === Op 28/06/2023 om 19:07 schreef Jon Perryman: > Assembler language and Assembler Macro language are 2 separate languages & > manuals. Both have variables and symbols but they are very different in > concept. In Assembler, symbols have a diverse use, one of which is variable > names. On the other hand in the macro language, symbols and variables are not > related at all. The only macro symbol that comes to mind is sequence symbols > (e.g. AGO .SYMBOL). Because of the period, a macro variable name cannot > become a symbol. If I remember correctly, in certain situations, a sequence > symbol can include a variable (e.g. ago .LABEL&VAR). > > As for omitting the & in variable declarations, don't do it to be consistent. > IBM can't change this behavior in the Macro language because it would break > existing code. > > Moral of the story, treat Assembler and Macros as 2 separate languages. There > are a couple of situations where the distinction becomes a little blurred but > it's usually obvious. On Wednesday, June 28, 2023 at 07:46:55 AM PDT, > Seymour J Metz <sme...@gmu.edu> wrote: > > Yes, it's legal, no, it's not an ordinary symbol in a [LCL|GBL]x, and yes, > it's confusing. IMHO it would have been better to accept it but issue a > warning. > > ________________________________________ > From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List <ASSEMBLER-LIST@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on > behalf of Joseph Reichman <reichman...@gmail.com> > Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2023 10:09 AM > To: ASSEMBLER-LIST@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU > Subject: Variable symbol without leading & > > Hi > Just looked at the doc for LCLC says for variable symbol says can be with or > with out leading & > > I did try to assemble a symbol without leading & and it did a assemble > however I would think without the leading & it’s an ordinary symbol > > However when I tried to do a SETC against it I got a assembly error > > So my question becomes if you can declare a variable symbol without a > leading & > But cannt SETC what can it be used for >
