Re: "Substantive Changes"

"William M. Klein" <wmklein@nospam.netcom.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:DWtOi.74132$zh6.71755@fe10.news.easynews.com...
>I don't know exactly why EXAMINE was removed and INSPECT was added.  As far
>as I can tell TRANSFORM was never part of any ANSI Standard.  In fact, the
>'74 Standard did not have the functionality of TRANSFORM in its version of
>INSPECT. That came "back" with the '85 Standard when INSPECT CONVERTING
>(rather than REPLACING) was added.
>
> If I had a copy of the '74 Standard, I probably could "look up" in its
> Substantive Change section what the rationale was.  However, they have
> scanned the '68 Standard, but not the '74 -- so I don't have a copy.
> (EXAMINE was in it).

ANSI X3.23-1974, page XIV-9...:
'2. APPENDIX B: THE REVISION OF AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARD COBOL ...
2.3 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN X3.23-1968 AND THE REVISED STANDARD ...
2.3.2 Overview of the Revised Modules
As in X3.23-1968, the Nucleus is divided into two levels. The major changes
introduced into the Nucleus are...
(2) The EXAMINE statement has been deleted in favor of the more general and
powerful INSPECT statement. The INSPECT statement provides the ability to
count (Format 1), replace (Format 2) or count and replace (Format 3)
occurrences of  single characters or groups of characters in a data item.'

Not much of a reason given there

K. Kiesel
Fujitsu Siemens Computers, München