> You know the rest. It says "example" and "convention", not > "standard". Regardless, I'd like to see the two-byte length > followed by the PARM field preserved in any extension of a > PARM-like operand to a 65536 (it says "two-byte", not "halfword", > avoiding the implication that it's signed), or even just 32767 > byte length. It's what would be most compatible with programs > that already usefully accept PARMs of several hundred characters > when called by other programs or Rexx ATTACHMVS. > > And a cautionary note which would be wisely heeded: > > To prevent possible errors, always use the count as a length > attribute in acquiring the information in the PARM field. > > I believe that any program which malfunctions because it ignores > this admonition can rightly be considered defective.
You ignore all the very explicit statements that IBM makes in other places. The JCL Reference Manual explicitly states that the maximum PARM length is 100 characters. The Language Environment Programming Guide explicitly tells COBOL or PL/1 applications programmers to rely on a maximum length of 100 (see the section on "Preparing Your Main routine to Receive Parameters"). Any programmers who abide by these statements are not producing defective code. They are following IBM's rules. Increasing the PARM length will break perfectly valid current code. Regards, Allen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
