RE: 9/9/99

["Kahn, David [JNJFR]" <DKahn1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It's news to me too. I began programming in COBOL in 1975 and we had
programs then that were already years old that used the 'READ filename AT
END...' construct. It was, however, common practice to have a trailer record
at the end of sequential files, usually with hash totals. If you got to end
of file without finding the trailer record then you knew you had a file
problem. Having read the trailer record and checked the hash totals you read
the file again to make sure it really was the end; if you found records
after the trailer that too was an error condition. Any systems that still
use this technique could well have a Y2K problem.

Dave Kahn
Johnson & Johnson International (Ethicon) France
Phone : +33 1 55 00 3180
Email :  dkahn1@jnjfr.jnj.com (work)
           dkahn@cix.co.uk      (home)


-----Message d'origine-----
De: Fisher, Don [mailto:DRF@HeiligMeyers.com]
Date: 02 September 1999 23:07
À: 'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'
Objet: RE: 9/9/99


Really?  When I started coding on the AS/400 in 1989, COBOL had an end of
file function.  I take it you are referring to considerably older code?
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