Re: Cycle Processing vs. Doing it my way

Steven,

>If the truth be known, I need it for the Edit Codes (I never can remember
>exactly what J/K/L/M give me without it).

If it helps, consider the pattern of letters chosen for the various edit codes,
and note the EBCDIC equivalents of the letters.  (Hint: this goes back to the
days of 80-column cards with "zone" punches.)

Note that A-D are xC1 to xC4, J-M are xD1 to xD4, and 1-4 are xF1 to xF4.  Thus
the EBCDIC "zone" (eg C, D, or F) determined the sign handling (CR, trailing
minus, or none) and the EBCDIC "digit" determined the comma and zero
suppression.

Within each group, the first two have commas, the last two don't.  In each of
those sets of two, the first prints zero balances, the second doesn't.

All I ever really bothered to memorize 22 years ago are the above two sentences.
That tells me whether it is x1, x2, x3, or x4, then depending on how I want the
sign handled, I add the "zone puches" to make it A-D, J-M, or 1-4.  This sounds
more complicated than it really is, even if you never did use 80-column cards...

Just think:

  Commas?       Yes: 1-2                No: 3-4
  Print zero?   Yes  First      No: Second  (within the above groups)
  Sign?         CR: A-D         Trailing minus: J-M     None: 1-4

This covered all the customary edit codes of days gone by, excluding the
oddballs X, Y, and Z which were easy enough to remember.  It wasn't until later
I was exposed to floating minus sign (N-Q in same pattern as above) and 5-9 for
user-defined edit codes.

HTH,
Doug