The answer to this one is actually pretty funny (and it really IS a bug).
DATE-MODIFIED is *not* a valid paragraph name for any IBM (or other
compiler
that I know of).
HOWEVER, (and here comes the funny part). IBM (and several other
compilers)
allow for a "comment-entry" to be in either the A-margin or
B-Margin. (The
'85 Standard isn't clear to me as to whether this is an extension or not.)
Therefore, given the construct:
AUTHOR. MRK S.
DATE-WRITTEN. NOV 07, 2002.
DATE-MODIFIED. NOV 21, 2002.
the "DATE-MODIFIED. ..." text is (on IBM and several other compilers)
treated as a "comment-entry" portion of the (valid and conforming)
DATE-WRITTEN. paragraph. You could just as well have coded:
AUTHOR. MRK S.
DATE-WRITTEN. NOV 07, 2002.
Now-is-the-time. For all good men to come to the aid of their
party>
and it would compile. For documentation on continuation of
comment-entries,
see the '85 Standard, page VI-6, SR(1).
P.S. A common use of this "feature" is IBM code like the following:
AUTHOR. MRK S.
REMARKS. OS/VS COBOL allowed for a REMARKS paragraph but
VS COBOL II and later do not. However, this works because
it is actually a part of the AUTHOR paragraph.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden
> [mailto:address@hidden On
> Behalf Of Robert Sherry
> Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 2:16 PM
> To: 'John R. Culleton'; address@hidden
> Cc: 'Roger While'
> Subject: RE: [open-cobol-list] Bug Report
>
> John,
>
> You are right. I meant to say: DATE-MODIFIED. Sorry. In
> any event, I
> believe it should work in MVS compatible mode. Do you
> disagree with that?
>
> Bob Sherry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden
> [mailto:address@hidden On
> Behalf Of John R.
> Culleton
> Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 2:46 PM
> To: address@hidden
> Cc: Robert Sherry; 'Roger While'
> Subject: Re: [open-cobol-list] Bug Report
>
> On Thursday 06 October 2005 06:34 pm, Robert Sherry wrote:
> > John,
> >
> > While DATE-WRITTEN is not part of standard COBOL it is
> part of IBM
> MVS
> > COBOL. Therefore it should work with std=mvs.conf. By the
> way, it use to
> > work in Open COBOL.
> >
> > Bob Sherry
>
> DATE-MODIFIED IS THE PROBLEM!
> --
> John Culleton