[Info-vax] Calling $CREPRC in COBOL

[Craig A. Berry]

On 6/10/22 1:27 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 6/10/22 14:16, Craig A. Berry wrote:
>> On 6/10/22 12:39 PM, VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG wrote:
>>>    10  ENQ-TYPE      PIC X(1)  VALUE EXTERNAL PQL$_ENQLM.
>>> ..............^
>>> %COBOL-E-EXTREFVAL, VALUE EXTERNAL clause ignored - valid only on COMP
>>> data-item
>>>
>>> How do you put PQL$ items in to a COBOL "byte"?
>>
>> I never knew much COBOL and haven't looked at any in decades, but I
>> would think for a one-byte integer it would be "PIC 9(1)" rather than
>> "PIC X(1)".
> 
> PIC X(1) would be more likely to be a byte than PIC 9(1) as
> PIC 9(1) is one decimal digit and PIC X(1) is one character.
> 
> But neither is correct.

So, since you frequently brag about your COBOL prowess here, why not
give the correct answer?

I did forget that "size" doesn't actually mean size but rather display
digits or something.  "PIC 9(9) COMP" is a 4-byte integer, "PIC 9(4)
COMP" is a 2-byte integer.  By extension, "PIC 9(3) COMP" *might* be a
1-byte integer, but I couldn't quickly find any documentation on it.