Ditto, I have found using liberal white space has saved me a lot of trouble over the years.
Plus now that my eyes are 'of a certain age' I appreciate even more the habit of an easy-read coding style. Marc Rutherford Principal Programmer Analyst Advanced Bionics LLC 661) 362 1754 -----Original Message----- From: u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org [mailto:u2-users-boun...@listserver.u2ug.org] On Behalf Of Wols Lists Sent: Friday, June 08, 2012 4:20 AM To: u2-users@listserver.u2ug.org Subject: Re: [U2] Why did this compile?? On 07/06/12 21:24, Tony Gravagno wrote: > When I was working at Pick Systems I found that anything can be passed > into format masks from BASIC, OCONV, or an F-correlative. If it > doesn't blow up some code deep down in the parser then it's just > ignored. I think the theory is that if someone knows enough to get > down that far into the bowels of the system then they'll be able to > diagnose errors resulting from faulty codes. It's sort of like not > putting a "Be careful of falling trees" sign in a forest where > lumberjacks work. > > The compiler doesn't know that "~" is an invalid mask, since that's a > runtime feature. So VAR"anything" will compile, which is unfortunate > because it's probably safe to say that ALL of us have tripped on this > exact same issue at some point, maybe every few months for some of us. > > I guess the only thing that amazes me is that none of the MVDBMS > providers (to my knowledge) have ever added an optional runtime trap > or log option when an invalid mask is detected at runtime - seems like > they're all just missing a Case 1 or Case True fall-through condition. > Which is why I always use what some people might consider "excessive" whitespace ... TEST.STRING = TRIM(LINE<1>) : "~" : TRIM(LINE<3>) "~" : TRIM(LINE<4>) The missing colon is a bit more obvious here ... And again, Primeisms, but Primos packed whitespace fairly well. If you told the OS that something was a text file, a string of spaces of any length only took two bytes - DC1,n - where n was the number of spaces. So I tend to be pretty free with whitespace. I find the Unix way of using tabs quite a pain ... Cheers, Wol _______________________________________________ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users _______________________________________________ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
