[Info-vax] Calling $CREPRC in COBOL

[abrsvc]

On Friday, June 10, 2022 at 4:00:11 PM UTC-4, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 6/10/22 15:22, VAX... at SendSpamHere.ORG wrote: 
> > In article <t804ht$a69$1... at dont-email.me>, "Craig A. Berry" <craig... at nospam.mac.com> writes: 
> >> 
> >> On 6/10/22 1:27 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote: 
> >>> On 6/10/22 14:16, Craig A. Berry wrote: 
> >>>> On 6/10/22 12:39 PM, VAX... at SendSpamHere.ORG wrote: 
> >>>>>    10  ENQ-TYPE      PIC X(1)  VALUE EXTERNAL PQL$_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. 
> > 
> > You and Bill know more than I about COBOL. It doesnt even look like code to 
> > me. 
> > 
> > The customer said that they got this code many years ago. The problem is that 
> > without defining those quotas, a process can not run a new piece of code. They 
> > don't understand it and call it "SPAWNing" which is how they do most of their 
> > COBOL (COBOL writes .COM, LIB$SPAWN runs it). Fugly. 
> >
> To each his own. I think PHP and Python are ugly. :-) 
> 
> I don't suppose the program has any documentation. :-) 
> 
> bill

A quick look in my "Programming VAX-11 Cobol" student workbook shows:

PIC 9(5) COMP  is a word
PIC 9(9) COMP  is a longword

Knowing what system service is being called that requires the PQL$_ENQLM would help to provide the correct Cobol line.

Dan