On Tue, 28 Jan 2014 08:14:30 -0500, John Gilmore wrote: >Two ampersands represent one ampersand in and only in a single-quote >framed string. > Thanks.
>The use of SET statements can make some but not all of these problems >tractable, and I suspect that strengthening the concatenation >machinery available for SET statements would solve most such problems. > The designers of the SET statement would indeed have done better to >just add the HLASM SETC statement to JCL. Their independent design >is less than felicitous. > The designers of the symbol substitution mechanism circa nine lustra ago would indeed have done better to have been more consistent: o Always recognize and substute symbols whether within or without a single-quote framed string. o Always recognize two ampersands as representing a single ampesand whether within or without a single-quote framed string. o Recognize a temporary DSNAME introduced by a single ampersand, never two, after symbol substitution and reduction of doubled ampersands. It appears that they were striving for the third point; failed to recognize that the second is false and collapsed into chaos, perhaps driven by too much JCL already coded to change. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
