[open-cobol-list] Re. Small Cobol changes for MVS compatibility

[Roger While]

David, I'm fairly OK with 1 and 2.
But definitely not with 3.
I was always mystified by the way compilers jumped through
hoops to supposedly adhere to the nonsense 85 standard.
In the 2002 standard, things are absolutely clear.
If you say ==<space>TEXT<space>== BY
==<space>TEXT2<space>== , then 2002 states that
this is EXACTLY what will be searched for and EXACTLY what
will be replaced.
The only extra processing is :
"Each occurrence of a separator comma, semicolon, or space in pseudo-text-1 
or in the library text is
considered to be a single space. Each sequence of one or more space 
separators is considered to be
a single space."

In fact, because of the 85 confusion, MicroFocus says this :
"(ANS85) If certain conventions are followed in library text, parts of 
names, for example the prefix portion of data-names, can be changed with 
the REPLACING phrase. To use this type of "partial word replacement" the 
portion of the words to be modified must be enclosed in one of the 
following ways:
In pairs of left and right parentheses. For example, (ABC)
Within colons. For example :XYZ: "

So, regardless of what Open Cobol does or does not do, I would change
your copy statements to be unambiguous. In my opinion, putting spaces at 
the end of
pseudo-text and expecting the compiler to know what you mean is asking for 
trouble.
Take out the trailing space at the end of pseudo-text-1 and -2, and then 
you have a prog that
should compile with any standard (theoretically) .

Roger