This thread seems to have switched its attention from lamentations to
circumventions, and these of course abound.
The IBM HLASM supports an alias statement:
<begin snippet from HLASM LR>
The ALIAS instruction specifies alternate names for the external symbols that
identify control sections, entry points, and external references. The
instruction has nothing to do with the link-time aliases in
libraries.
</end snippet from HLASM LR>
Its syntax is
|<external symbol> ALIAS <replacement value>
Values of <external symbol>, which are the ones that must be used in writing
HLASM source statements, may not be more than 8 characters in length. For z/VM
and z/OS values of <replacement value> may be at most 256 characters in length;
and they replace instances of <external symbol> in output object modules
[only].
In the short term circumventions of this sort are about the best that we can
hope for. Simplistic relaxation of the hoary eight-character maxima would
break too much in too many places. Worse, waiting for such relaxations to be
feasible everywhere would delay the availability of any circumvention.
As usual, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
John Gilmore Ashland, MA 01721-1817 USA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
