RE: Ugh.

 >> Last time I looked COMP is packed and packed arithmetic IS slower than
binary.

Agreed, but the S/38 compiler writers recognized that _effective_ speed was
more important than raw speed.  Binary is only faster when dealing with
integers.  The minute there are any decimal places involved the results of
the calculation require scaling.  Packed on the other hand is generally
implemented through some form of microcode and scaling is built in.

The result is that if you run the same set of calculations on both an S/390
and on an iSeries you get the same sequence of results.  Binary is fastest -
but only on integer calcs.  For everything else packed is faster.  On
iSeries the difference between packed and binary is greater, but even on
S/390 packed still outperforms on most everything except add 1 to count type
operations.

In case you're interested I had to go through this exercise to dissuade an
IBM customer from suing IBM over differences in the compilers on different
platforms!

Jon Paris
Partner400