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Status Not under consideration
Workspace COBOL Compilers
Created by Guest
Created on Oct 17, 2013

RELATED IDEAS

Mainframe style command-line argument linkage in an ASCII environment on AIX

Please provide a compiler option (or compiler patch) which enables COBOL main programs to receive command-line arguments as an ASCII character string that has a halfword prefix that contains the string length (z/OS mainframe COBOL like command-line argument linkage, but in native ASCII codepage of AIX). The program arguments on the command-line will be enclosed in quotation marks. Existing IBM COBOL for AIX compiler option -host provides the requested kind of command line parameter linkage but unfortunately triggers the use of EBCDIC character encoding, too. The -host flag always sets CHAR(EBCDIC) (and COLLSEQ(EBCDIC)) which is not the intended target codepage of all customers.

Idea priority High
  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Sep 1, 2020

    Hi, thanks for the reply. Feel free to open a new RFE if this becomes an issue in the future. Thanks.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Aug 13, 2020

    Hi,

    Thank you very much for your suggestion.
    Unfortunately I can't test it because we do not have an IBM COBOL for AIX installation anymore :-( .

    Thanks again.

    Best regards
    Stefan

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Aug 12, 2020

    Hi, can you please test with -qhost -q'char(ascii)' -q'collseq(ascii)' to see if it helps with this RFE? Thanks.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Sep 14, 2015

    Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
    Brand - Servers and Systems Software
    Product family - Programming Languages
    Product - COBOL Compilers

    For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
    Brand - Rational
    Product family - Design & development
    Product - COBOL Compilers

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Nov 21, 2013

    This feature is in-line with our multi-year strategy, but has not been planned for a future release yet.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Nov 14, 2013

    This RFE is still being reviewed by IBM

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Nov 12, 2013

    Hi Basil,
    Thank you for working on our request.
    Native ASCII support when using the -host option would solve our problem. Providing an additional/new compiler switch to trigger the mainframe like command-line argument linkage/handling independently from the other settings of the -host option (CHAR(EBCDIC), COLLSEQ(EBCDIC), NCOLLSEQ(BIN), FLOAT(S390)) would be another solution.
    The request is not about COBOL string handling.
    Just about the way the AIX COBOL runtime provides main programs with command line arguments.
    Thank you again.
    Best regards from Germany
    Stefan

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Nov 11, 2013

    Thanks for the reply.

    You mentioned:
    "Our intention is to work in a native ASCII environment. So all strings (incl. the command-line argument string "parm-string" in the source code example mentioned above) should be encoded in ASCII."

    Are you requesting for ASCII support specifically when using -host option on AIX? or do you want (just in general) AIX COBOL to support ASCII character string that has a halfword prefix that contains the string length.

    You're clarification would be appreciated.

    Regards,
    Basil

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Nov 5, 2013

    Hi,
    Thank you for reviewing our request.
    The Mainframe style command-line argument linkage used by COBOL main programs on z/OS is shown in section "Example: command-line arguments with -host option" of chapter "Using command-line arguments" in the "COBOL for AIX, V4.1.1 Programming Guide" manual.
    Our problem is, that we want to use this kind of command-line argument linkage but are not able use the -host option because this option will set CHAR(EBCDIC) and COLLSEQ(EBCDIC), too. Our intention is to work in a native ASCII environment. So all strings (incl. the command-line argument string "parm-string" in the source code example mentioned above) should be encoded in ASCII.
    Thank you again.
    Best regards from Germany.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Nov 4, 2013

    Hi Stefan,

    We are currently investigating your request. As part of our investigation, can you please provide the mainframe style command-line argument syntax that is currently being used on z/OS for us to get an accurate idea?

    Thanks.

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