Even after all the responses to my query just over a week ago it does not appear that there is anything that can be done to force Enterprise Cobol to use ANSI (ASA) control characters instead of machine control characters if I declare the file in the Cobol program as EXTERNAL. I verified this with the vendor of the application that uses EXTERNAL.
This leads to another issue. If I write to a dataset in order to download it for loading into our archival system (IBM Content Manager OnDemand for Windows) it ends up converting the control character "form EBCDIC to ASCII". Is there any way that this translation (for only the first character) can be avoided? I tried both SITE ASATRANS and SITE NOASATRANS and neither seems to "work". Thanks, Frank -- Frank Swarbrick Applications Architect - Mainframe Applications Development FirstBank Data Corporation - Lakewood, CO USA P: 303-235-1403 >>> The information contained in this electronic communication and any document attached hereto or transmitted herewith is confidential and intended for the exclusive use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any examination, use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication or any part thereof is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy this communication. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html