In
general, you can expect portable COBOL programs to behave the same way on the
Windows-based workstation as they
do on the mainframe. However, be aware of the differences in file-status values
used in I/O processing.
If your program responds to status key data items, you should be concerned
with two issues, depending on whether the program is written to respond to the
first or the second status key:
- If your program responds to the first file status data item (data-name-1),
be aware that values returned in the 9n range depend on the
platform. If your program relies on the interpretation of a particular 9n
value (for example, 97), do not expect the value to have the same meaning on
the Windows-based workstation that it has on the
mainframe. Instead, revise your program so that it responds to any 9n
value as a generic I/O failure.
- If your program responds to the second file status data item (data-name-8),
be aware that the values returned depend on both the platform and file
system. For example, the STL file system returns values with a different
record structure on the Windows-based workstation than
the VSAM file system does on the mainframe. If your program relies on the
interpretation of the second file status data item, it is probably not
portable.
related tasks
Using file status keys
Using file system status codes
related references
FILE STATUS clause
(COBOL for Windows Language Reference)
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