RE: Need for separate Input and Output Areas in Display File

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Winchester Terry
>
> Joe,
>
> These areas are level-05 entries copied into your program
> by the pre-compiler.  They do not overlap in the example I
> provided because your telling the compiler to copy a *single*
> input (or output) record format individually. Try it an see :)
>
> You may be thinking of this scenario:
>
>     01  DSPFILE-area.
>         copy dds-all-formats     of OE314D.
>
> The above case is where you run into overlapping structures
> due to the "redefines" statement inserted by the compiler.
> This can cause horrific problems and is best avoided if at
> all possible.

<ROFL>

My COBOL newbie-ness is showing!  But as you can see from my last post, I
did at least notice that my code was different.  As Leif says, COBOL is much
more flexible than RPG, but with that flexibility lies more responsibility.

I have to say this - for an RPG guy, COBOL is wordy and there is a lot of
typing.  But it sure does allow for some pretty powerful programming
techniques.

Joe