[open-cobol-list] RFC - Binary fields > 18 digits

[Roger While]

After implementing NUMERIC and PACKED
fields > 18 digits (CVS - experimental: needs testing
not for production) -
I would like feedback regarding the format of
BINARY fileds exceeding (implicly/explicitly)
18 digits. The 2002 standard allows 31
(geez, How did that come about?
 2 x 18 = 36 and 2 power 128 is even more).
First thoughts are to allow 36 digits
(as per CVS regarding normal NUMERIC
 and PACKED fields), and represent this
irregardless of the "-std=" as 16 bytes in
big-endian form.
(Which note can hold > 36 digits)
This seems reasonable as there is
no native 128-bit integer addressing on
any machine that I am aware of and anyway
C does not support it.

The reason I ask is that MF have always
offered a binary byte-length field depending on
the picture. (ie "-std=mf" produces binary fields
with length from 1 to 8) and there is
the COMP-5 definiton.
Also not to forget the 2002 BINARY-CHAR etc
definitons.

Comments ?

Roger