Type of Change: Enhancement
Incidents: 2817156
RPI Number: 1099132
Product: ACUCOBOL-GT
Module: Compiler
New Version: 10.0
Machines Affected: All
Known Versions Affected: All
Description of enhancement
Using ANSI-85 constructs can make COBOL programs much more readable. Unfortunately, there has not been an easy way to detect when such constructs are missing.
For example, consider the following code:
IF a = b
display message box "a = b"
ELSE
display message box "a NOT= b"
| an END-IF is here missing
display message box "Run is completed"
Based on the indentation, this has a different meaning than is intended.
Instructions for use
The compiler can now report when an END construct is missing. In order to get this information, you must use the -Wu compile option (check unterminated verbs). The message reported will be:
my-test.cbl, line 40: Warning: Implicitly terminated verb: IF found with no END-IF.
The verbs that are checked for a missing end construct are ACCEPT, ADD, CALL, COMPUTE, DELETE, DISPLAY, DIVIDE, EVALUATE, IF, MODIFY, MOVE, MULTIPLY, PERFORM, READ, RECEIVE, RETURN, REWRITE, SEARCH, START, STRING, SUBTRACT, UNSTRING, USE, WAIT, WRITE, and XML GENERATE and PARSE.
Note that only complex cases are reported. It would be unhelpful to see a warning for every simple move, such as MOVE A TO B, for example.