>It is a lie to say BLOCK CONTAINS 0 RECORDS, it would have been better to have >done that by leaving out the line altogether.
I don't think it's a lie. Historically, ZERO has always had a special meaning. In COBOL's case, it just means that the programme is not going to determine the blocksize, but leaves a place-holder for it when it's decided elsewhere. I honestly don't think that it's so onerous to have to worry about coding it (it's a nit). Most shops have standard templates (or programmers copy existing code) that are modified to meet current needs. Very little code is written from scratch. (I know I rarely do it for any language). - Too busy driving to stop for gas! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
