In article <[log in to unmask]>, Diane Head <[log in to unmask]>
writes
>mpe/ix v. 4.0 hp955
>
>I have a need for a cobol program to pause.
>
>It is a data maintenance screen, but a process was created to
>queue transactions, automatically login and run the program.
>It is not feasible for the screen to respond with "file locked,
>try again". The lock is from another user, for less than 10 seconds,
>and rarely happens. But it causes the other process to shutdown
>until "kicked".
>
>Program requires a compile using compatibility mode.
>(COBOLII program,usl,$NULL)
>
>Anyone out there have success with the pause intrinsic & COBOLII ?
>
>Can you provide the data definitions & code ?
>
>The program will require a hard coded pause time of xx seconds.
>
>The pause intrinsic requires the use of a 'real' number,
>I have had no success and I need the program fixed.
>

Lateral thinking:

I solved this once on MPE/V by defining the parameter passed to PAUSE as
X(1) containing [log in to unmask]

This gave a one-second pause. It also blew a raspberry on compiling, but
went ahead nonetheless.

To get n-second Pauses, I encapsulated it in my own subroutine, which
accepted 'n' and called Pause with '@' n times. Not quite a kosher n-
second Pause, but close enough...

To find this wonderful confluence between 'real 1' and '@', I used
Transact, which does allow Reals. I set up a few reals, and looked at
their 'X' definition. A techier techie might be able to work directly
from the bit representations....

I suspect that 'real 1' on MPE/iX may be represented by something other
than [log in to unmask] Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway, try this approach and see how you get on.

MEMO to HP:

AFAIK, PAUSE has always been a problem to COBOL programmers because
COBOL cannot provide a Real.

PAUSE is unique within the HP Intrinsics in demanding a Real.

And there is nothing else that can do what PAUSE does.

Any comments, gurus?
--
Roy Brown               Phone : (01684) 291710     Fax : (01684) 291712
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