Conference clt::cobol

3243.0. "DISPLAY differences on VAX and Alpha" by SWAM1::COHEN_RO (Ron Cohen: DTN 531-3742) Sun May 18 1997 21:37

    
    
    Customer environment:  VMS 5.2/Cobol 4.4       Alpha 6.2/Cobol 4.4
    
    A different result occurs between the above two systems executing
    the following display lines:
    
    	Display "".
        Display "********************************************".
        Display "*                                          *".
        Display "*   PHY511 - delete items                  *"
          .
          .
          .
    
     On VMS the first null display is positioned at the point the program
     is called and the display lines are executed.
    
     On Alpha display lines are automatically positioned at upper left
     over existing test but the existing test is not cleared. In regards
     to the first null display, the preceding text remains and the second
     display line overrides any text. Any subsequent null lines are also
     not cleared.
    
     This type of code affects many programs so the customer would
     prefer not to change code.
    
     Any suggestions?
    
     Thanks

Re .0

Hi,

>    Customer environment:  VMS 5.2/Cobol 4.4       Alpha 6.2/Cobol 4.4

Are you sure about these version numbers?

There are two current supported versions of VAX COBOL. One is version 5.3 
on OpenVMS VAX version 5.5-2 and higher. This support will be discontinued 
in Sept-1997. The other is version 5.4 which is supported on OpenVMS VAX
versions 6.1 and higher. Support for version 4.4 ended in 1992 when VAX
COBOL version 5.0 was produced. There were a lot of updates to ACCEPT and
DISPLAY in that product, and the intent was for DEC COBOL to be compatible 
with that version of the VAX COBOL product instead of to previous versions.

The current supported version of DEC COBOL is 2.4 on OpenVMS Alpha versions
6.1, 6.2 and 7.0.

We strongly recommend that your user upgrade their version of VAX COBOL to
the current supported level before considering differences with the current
supported version of DEC COBOL.

    This difference between DEC COBOL and VAX COBOL is documented in the
    DEC COBOL User Manual - Compatibility Appendix.