Re: Advice sought: Parsing a line of COBOL in C.

fignet05.darrins@eds.com (Darrin Smith) wrote:
...
>I'm trying to convert a COMPUTE statement in COBOL from:
>
> COMPUTE variable1 = variable2 * -1
>to
> COMPUTE variable1 = 0 - variable2
>
>It would be no problem if the compute always followed this format, but
>of course it does not. ....
...


>[I'd convert it to a string of tokens, squashing out the confusing
>white space and all, then do some simple pattern matching on the token
>string. -John]


This is scarcely a compiler job, much more like a job for a macro
processor or a simple program in a string handling language such as
SNOBOL4 or Icon. If you can get a copy of the PL/I-based macro
language LP2257 and replace the PL/I tokenizer, with a COBOL tokenizer,
it's a breeze, and it would only be a bit more work with the macro
language ML/I's generic tokenizer. A small Icon program is probably
the simplest, quickest solution, and Icon is free. See comp.lang.icon
for an FAQ.


--
All the best !


John H. Lindsay, Phone: (613) 541-6000 - 1 - 6419
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science,
Royal Military College of Canada, Internet: Lindsay_J@RMC.CA
Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7K 5L0. Fax: (613) 542-8129
--

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