Re: Re: MVT COBOL under MVS3.8j.

Joe, I vaguely remember see (and using) a "trick" that created a 
negative offset to the LLBB bytes in front of the buffer.

I know that it was not a "supported" feature of COBOL, but that it did 
work.

It's been too many years, and I don't seem to have an old listing in my 
files that shows the way it was done.
Do you recall any "unsupported" features that actually worked?

/s/ Bill Turner, wb4alm




On 9/16/19 10:05 AM, Joe Monk [email protected] [H390-MVS] wrote:
> "I guess in pure COBOL '68 that is not possible?"
>
> That's correct Peppe. If you read the paragraph it says:
>
> "Control bytes are automatically provided when a record /is/written 
> and are not communicated to the user when a file is read."
>
> Joe
>
> On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 6:53 AM Giuseppe Vitillaro 
> giuseppe-yuD/ahkh7LvrZ44/[email protected] <mailto:giuseppe-yuD/ahkh7LvrZ44/[email protected]> [H390-MVS] 
> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>
>     On Mon, 16 Sep 2019, Joe Monk [email protected]
>     <mailto:[email protected]> [H390-MVS] wrote:
>
>     > Remember Peppe, this is '68 Cobol, not '74 Cobol.
>     >
>     > You use an occurs with the depending on in the data record.
>     >
>     > FD BLAH BLAH BLAH
>     > DATA RECORD IS DATA-RECORD
>     > LABEL RECORDS ARE STANDARD.
>     >
>     > 01 DATA-RECORD.
>     > 02 FIELD-1 PIC 99.
>     > 02 FIELD-2 PIC X OCCURS 1 TO 99 TIMES
>     > DEPENDING ON FIELD-1.
>     >
>     > Joe
>
>     I understand Joe, I've read the manuals.
>
>     But in this way the record length FIELD-1 needs
>     to be recorded INTO the record.
>
>     I would like to use the dataset control words without storing
>     anything else in the record, beside the app payload.
>
>     I guess in pure COBOL '68 that is not possible?
>
>     Peppe.
>
>