Re: [open-cobol-list] Cobcurses installation problem.

[John Culleton]

On Wednesday 26 December 2007 02:23:50 pm Alain wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Seeing that you have no answer, my halph-penny contribution ;-)
>
> On Tue, 25 Dec 2007 09:42:25 -0500
> John Culleton <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> (snip)
>
> >   10  SCR-0015 PIC X(023)
> >       VALUE "
> >       3.Author:".
>
> As, like me, you use the free syntax, you should know that in cobol free
> syntax, a line is, seem to me, 255 c of length. What can done a line withe
> 'VALUE "'
> and an other with '3.author:"'
>
> Cobol is a beautifull langage, but like other has is syntax, so you should
> try to put that on a single line, like 10  SCR-0015 PIC X(023)       VALUE
> "3.Author:".
>
> or, at less, if you really want to write this on TRHEE LINES,
>
>    10  SCR-0015 PIC X(023)
>        VALUE
>        "3.Author:".
>
> Else, try to use PYTHON !
>
> > The error message refers to the fact that AUTHOR is not in COBOL 2002.  
> > There are lots of such literals so I hesitate to debug by putting
> > everything on one
>
> Have you done that ? and what was the result ?
>
> > line.  In legacy layout one would use a "-" in column 7 but of course
> > this is
>
> In legacy format (I have used 30 years, because no other, you have about 65
> chars per line (72-7) ... in free format you have 255 !!!
>
> > in free form.  The Makefile generates this error message:
> >
> >
> > cobc -c -Wall -Wno-call-params  -std=cobol2002 -I../copybk -free
> > sd002010.cob -o sd002010.o
> > SD002010-WS.cbl:36: Error: Author does not conform to COBOL 2002
>
> Sure, with your first '"' displacead, the compilator is lost
> but you can try to write else or use an other flavour.
>
> (snip)
>
> > Does anyone have experience with cobcurses? Is it worth the trouble? I
> > have Slackware 12 Linux.   My OC alternatives are to try some sort of cgi
> > interface, or Tcl/Tk, or whatever.
>
> No I've not, at this time, but I try that as soon as possible, when I have
> resolved the probles I have now, seeming that O-C-1.0 use 64 bits chars ???
>
> > --
> > John Culleton
>
> best regards,

The code example was not of my making but part of the cobcurses package. I use 
lagacy layout and would continue a long literal with "-" in column 7 as I 
stated before.  The difficulty lies in the use of tab characters in the long 
literal, which can be expanded unexpectedly at compile time causing the 
overflow. 

As stated before there are many such long literals in cobcurses and I am not 
about to try to rewrite the package. Tiny with a screen section may be an 
orphan but it is a healthy orphan.  I'll either use that or a cgi interface. 

Thanks to all that responded. 
-- 
John Culleton
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