Cobol - Yet another approach to the "Telco" challenge

Author

Yet another approach to the "Telco" challenge

William M. Klein

2004-05-15, 5:30 pm

I have created (yet another) version of the COBOL "Telco" application.

This uses the "Standard" (I have stuck to the '85 Standard) "Report Writer"
feature. For those, not familiar with the "debate" - this feature tends to be
"loved" or "hated" among many large COBOL shops. The feature was optional in
the '85 Standard and some compilers don't have "native" support for it. It is,
however, a REQUIRED part of the ISO 2002 Standard.

I haven't (ever) created a production RW program using the Fujitsu compiler, so
some of the features that I thought I knew, didn't work quite as I expected, but
the posted version DOES work as required. I have not posted "timing" results -
because with the way RW works, it is virtually impossible to separate out the
computations (for the running totals, for example) from the I/O.

I was pleasantly surprised that using the Fujitsu compiler, this added some -
but not much to the run-time of the program (with the million records). For
those who look at it, "obviously" the data division is longer - but the
procedure division is relatively significantly reduced. This is because this
is a "data driven" approach to the application specification.

The source code for this variation is available at:
http://home.netcom.com/~wmklein/dox/TELCORW.TXT

Obviously (???) this type of approach would be most "cost-effective" with a
"real world" report output specification, i.e. one with page heading/footings;
control breaks and totals, etc. However, I think that comparing this with the
other versions might be of interest to those comparing COBOL language
possibilities.

(I think this would "best" compare to something like a SAS solution to the
problem - rather than a "procedural language" solution)

--
Bill Klein
wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com

LX-i

2004-05-15, 7:30 pm

William M. Klein wrote:

> I have created (yet another) version of the COBOL "Telco" application.
>
> This uses the "Standard" (I have stuck to the '85 Standard) "Report Writer"
> feature. For those, not familiar with the "debate" - this feature tends to be
> "loved" or "hated" among many large COBOL shops. The feature was optional in
> the '85 Standard and some compilers don't have "native" support for it. It is,
> however, a REQUIRED part of the ISO 2002 Standard.

[snip]

> For
> those who look at it, "obviously" the data division is longer - but the
> procedure division is relatively significantly reduced. This is because this
> is a "data driven" approach to the application specification.

This is precisely why I'm in the "love" category. Report Writer takes
all the formatting, extra moves, and line counting out of your procedure
division, and lets you focus on obtaining the data and reporting on it.

About the only thing I would add would maybe be some functions that you
could use in the "Source" statement, something like "SOURCE FUNCTION
AVERAGE (myVar1 myVar2 myVar3)" - but it's not overly difficult to set
up "extra" working-storage variables for these. Most of the time, we
need the data exactly as it is in the database.

--
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~ / /\ - | ~ LXi0007@Netscape.net ~
~ _____ / \ | ~ http://www.knology.net/~mopsmom/daniel ~
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William M. Klein

2004-05-15, 7:30 pm

The ISO 2002 Standard enhanced RW - so you MAY use FUNCTION (or even OO objects)
in SOURCE statements. You may also use "generic" arithmetic expressions. I
know of one implementation already supporting this - but I don't have it on my
computer.

--
Bill Klein
wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com
"LX-i" <lxi0007@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:10ad54hffkvgb3c@corp.supernews.com...
> William M. Klein wrote:
>
be[color=darkred]
in[color=darkred]
is,[color=darkred]
>
> [snip]
>
this[color=darkred]
>
> This is precisely why I'm in the "love" category. Report Writer takes
> all the formatting, extra moves, and line counting out of your procedure
> division, and lets you focus on obtaining the data and reporting on it.
>
> About the only thing I would add would maybe be some functions that you
> could use in the "Source" statement, something like "SOURCE FUNCTION
> AVERAGE (myVar1 myVar2 myVar3)" - but it's not overly difficult to set
> up "extra" working-storage variables for these. Most of the time, we
> need the data exactly as it is in the database.
>
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ~ / \ / ~ Live from Montgomery, AL! ~
> ~ / \/ o ~ ~
> ~ / /\ - | ~ LXi0007@Netscape.net ~
> ~ _____ / \ | ~ http://www.knology.net/~mopsmom/daniel ~
> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
> ~ I do not read e-mail at the above address ~
> ~ Please see website if you wish to contact me privately ~
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>

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