aren't standards wonderful?

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2 total messages Started by k... Ken Yap Fri, 26 Jan 1990 00:45

#1140

Author: k... Ken Yap
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1990 00:45

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I'm one person who has been bitten by a British/American spelling
difference in a compiler keyword. When I did my time in DP, I was asked
to help convert a bunch of COBOL programs running on an ICL to Vax
11/750 (VMS). So, using the software tool approach, I pulled out the
Ratfor sed clone and wrote a bunch of scripts to do the first 90%. It
was slow, but what the heck, it had to be done only once.

But the VMS compiler was still barfing on the converted programs.  I
scratched my head and checked the syntax several times. Then it dawned
on me. The ICL program read:

	INITIALISATION SECTION.

The VMS compiler wanted

	INITIALIZATION SECTION.

The fix was trivial.

Re: aren't standards wonderful?

#1141

Author: a... Andrew MacRae
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1990 01:24

5 lines
904 bytes

I got bitten once because the computer I was working on used the oppsite
naming convention for bits than I was used to.  I was accustomed to bit0
being the lowest order bit, but was using a machine where bit0 was defined
as the highest bit.  It took me a couple of hours to figure out why my
calls were all going south.

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