Rexx tool for cobol code standard checking

rakhi12 · New User Joined: 03 Oct 2010 Posts: 2 Location: Kolkata

Hi ,
I am looking for an rexx tool which will check whether a cobol program is written on a standard basis or not.means it will check for indentation and Para naming order like perform 2000-para should be before perform 3000-para and shouldn't be the reverse.And the section checking.If file is used then should be in the select-assign clause,FD section and properly open,write and close .

I will be very glad if anybody can share your thoughts in these regards.

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 6:51 pm

depends on:

invoke during edit/view mode
invoke as a batch job
make corrections
just generate an error list
insert error messages

my experience with writing such tools is that i found writing it in COBOL or ASSEMBLER was easier, due to the probable required addition of additional checks.

also, what happens to the source after the check.
I found that the only way to enforce programming standards was to introduce the 'check program' in the standard compile jcl and if deviations to the standards were found, insert error messages in the source file (without comment notation), before the compile step, so that the source could not be compiled.

without the ability to enforce standards, a second best method would be to write several REXX edit macros each having a specific job

would create the indentation required
flag unordered section/para names
flag improper Performs (not allow the thru option
flag goto's that were not to a para/section exit - eliminate potential permanent loops
flag IF's and EVALUATE's that exceeded 3-levels of nesting
modify code lines to insure only one verb and one reference per line - this helps with missing OF/IN's
program-id/pds member name mismatch

good 3rd party standards checkers cost quite a bit.
so, decide

what your standards are going to be
if you are really going to enforce standards
how you are going to enforce the standards

my suggestion is a lot of REXX edit macros, each performing a single task, all CALLed from a Control EDIT Macro
or
write it in COBOL or ASSEMBLE or PL1, so that the program is easier to maintain.

I have nothing at all against REXX Scripts
(i have more than 800 in my personal library)
but something as complex as a source program standards checker
does not belong in one REXX script.

And, spend some time googling.

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 7:56 pm

google for cobol beautifiers

such a tool belongs to the category ...
do it right or do not do it at all

in rexx it would be easy to build a token parser ...
do something based on the occurrence of some tokens/strings
pretty easy to do it for jcl

for cobol is not that easy
for cobol something has been done by IBM itself for SCLM in order to analyze program dependencies ( COPY and CALL )

look at FLMLRCBL in Your ISP.SISPSAMP to see the relative complexity of such a simple task

for something more complicated then a language parser ( at least partial ) must be built

rakhi12 · New User Joined: 03 Oct 2010 Posts: 2 Location: Kolkata

Hi,
Actually i want to invoke the rexx code during edit mode in the command line and that would create the indentation required in the cobol program.
Means if anyone write the code like this :
MOVE 10 TO NUM PERFORM 100-PARA THRU 100-EXIT.
then the rexx code will break the line and make the correct indentation like
MOVE 10 TO NUM
PERFORM 100-PARA THRU 100-EXIT.
...

and it will also check the para number ordering whether it is in the ascending order,flag IF's and EVALUATE's that exceeded 3-levels of nesting etc etc.

dick scherrer · Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 12:25 am

Hello,

Pretty much everyone understands what you want to have.

What has been suggested is that you should re-consider trying to implement something that will do all that is needed.

There are products available that do "standards checking" but they are not free.

People who are quite expert at rexx would not undertake this - the payback would not be worth the investment needed to create it.

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 12:55 am

the effort would be the same required to build an AST and print it!