>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jon Diercks <[log in to unmask]>
>>
>>The COBOL program in question normally does essentially this (butchered for
>>brevity, don't try to compile this):
>>
>>  move "00120" to secs
>>  call intrinsic "HPEXTIN" using secs, ... realsecs
>>  call intrinsic "PAUSE" using realsecs
>>
>>...but from debug we can see that in today's run the PAUSE intrinsic is
>>behaving as if it was passsed -1, meaning pause for eternity.  Could this
>be
>>a bug in HPEXTIN?  a bug in PAUSE?  a hardware problem?  (we have had
>>problems in the past with our Floating Point Coprocessor but it has since
>>been replaced).

On the subject of handling real numbers in COBOL...

I had occasion recently to convert an R4 from Image to human-readable
form in COBOL. Given that R4 has been around forever, and I believe
INEXT' just as long, I thought this a piece of cake.

HOWEVER, I completely forgot about the introduction of HPFPCONVERT,
which converts among real-number formats (HP 3000 and IEEE). (Note
that HPFPCONVERT is documented in the Intrinsics manual, as opposed
to INEXT'/HPINEXT, which are in the Compiler Library manual.)

Oddly, the Image manual--in listing the language-specific equivalents
for the Image data types--lists FORTRAN 77's "Real" type as being
compatible for both E2 *and* R2. Surely the language doesn't make
the conversions automatically!? Anyway...

I'm pretty sure that INEXT' used to convert from HP's real number
format (can anyone confirm/deny this?). In any case, now it converts
only from IEEE format!

So, for an R4 field, the proper procedure (near as I can tell) is

        05  R4-FIELD            PIC X(08).
        05  E4-FIELD            PIC X(08).
        ...
        CALL INTRINSIC "HPFPCONVERT" USING      R4-FIELD
                                                E4-FIELD
                                                ...
        CALL INTRINSIC "HPINEXT"     USING      E4-FIELD
                                                ...

Be aware that

(1) HPFPCONVERT may give a warning saying the conversion wasn't "precise"

(2) HPINEXT requires a 32-bit address to the first WORD of the field
    to be converted. As this is not a BYTE address (which *is* needed by
    CREATEPROCESS when redirecting $STDIN and $STDLIST), there is no need
    for ".LOC."; just provide the field name.

Does anyone have a better way?

Sorry if this is old hat to everyone; it sure kicked my butt for awhile.

FWIW.

--Glenn Cole
  Software al dente, Inc.
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