Re: new type of CA for ascii strings

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2 total messages Started by McKown, John Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:17

#276

Author: McKown, John
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:17

46 lines
3381 bytes

> -----Original Message-----
> From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List
> [mailto:ASSEMBLER-LIST@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of John R.
> Ehrman (408-463-3543 T/543-)
> Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 12:17 PM
> To: ASSEMBLER-LIST@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: new type of CA for ascii strings

<snip>

>
> A possible solution would be to make *all* character terms and
> constants subject to translation, but the impact on existing
> applications is very difficult to determine.
>
> Your thoughts and suggestions are welcomed.
>
> John Ehrman

Being a contrary cuss, if I want to be sure that I have x'..', then why
shouldn't I just code x'..' and put a comment on the code like:

        MVI     CHARVAR,X'41'   LOWER CASE ASCII CHARACTER - A

if something "better" is required, then I would suggest that HLASM
implement something like "CCSID" similar to:

        MVI     CHARVAR,CCSID_1047'A'   UPPER CASE A IN CCSID IBM-1047

Or something similar where the CCSID is specifically stated and so
unambiguous regardless of the "codepage".

--
John McKown
Senior Systems Programmer
HealthMarkets
Keeping the Promise of Affordable Coverage
Administrative Services Group
Information Technology

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Re: new type of CA for ascii strings

#281

Author: glen herrmannsfeldt
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:13

31 lines
2952 bytes

"McKown, John" <John.Mckown@healthmarkets.com> wrote:

> Being a contrary cuss, if I want to be sure that I have x'..', then why
> shouldn't I just code x'..' and put a comment on the code like:

>         MVI     CHARVAR,X'41'   LOWER CASE ASCII CHARACTER - A

The PL/I (F) compiler has comments in some modules like:

*              THE OPERATION OF THIS MODULE DEPENDS ON AN INTERNAL
*        REPRESENTATION OF THE EXTERNAL CHARACTER SET WHICH IS
*        EQUIVALENT TO THE ONE USED AT ASSEMBLY TIME. THE CODING HAS
*        BEEN ARRANGED SO THAT REDEFINITION OF 'CHARACTER' CONSTANTS,
*        BY RE-ASSEMBLY, WILL RESULT IN A CORRECT MODULE FOR THE NEW
*        DEFINITIONS.

Using the appropriate C constants allows, as the comment indicates,
the possibility of reassembly with a different object time character set.
(I don't know how many other IBM products have comments like this.)

I believe the Tachyon assembler allows a choice of both source
and object character set at assembly time.  It will, at least,
read ASCII source and generate code with EBCDIC constants.

If you use X constants and want to change the character set, someone
has to go through and find all of them to change.

You could use EQU to put all the constants in one place, so that
they would only need to be changed in one place, though.

-- glen

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