HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
The Tabx Program
If your RM/COBOL source programs contain any TAB characters, you must run
the tabx program before you can successfully submit them to this COBOL
system. This is necessary because each COBOL system handles TAB
characters differently. Under the RM/COBOL system the first TAB stop is
at character position 8, while subsequent TAB stops are at four character
intervals up to position 72. However, under this COBOL system, the first
TAB stop is at character position 9, while subsequent TAB stops are at
eight character intervals.
The tabx program expands any TAB characters in your RM/COBOL source
programs to spaces. The resulting source code can be submitted
successfully to either the RM/COBOL or this COBOL system.
To run tabx enter the following command line:
tabx [-options] input-filename [output-filename]
where:
options can be any of the following:
v sets verbose mode. Any
messages are displayed upon
your screen
l parameters are read from the
file specified as
input-filename
t(tab-spec) informs tabx of the positions
at which TAB characters are
set. For example -t (16-8,
64) assumes tab positions are
initially at position 16, and
then at eight character
intervals up to column 64. By
default this is set to -t
(8-4, 72) which is suitable
for RM/COBOL source programs.
input-filename the file containing the
RM/COBOL source program
output-filename the file to which the source
program output by tabx, is
directed. If you do not
specify output-filename, tabx
directs its output to
input-filename, so overwriting
the original contents of
input-filename
If you do not specify any parameters, tabx displays the required format
of the parameters as above.
Examples
tabx -v myfile.cbl myfile.new
expands the TAB characters in the file myfile.cbl and outputs a new file,
myfile.new.
tabx -l filelist
tabx treats each line of the file filelist as a command line.
tabx myfile.cbl
expands the TAB characters in the file myfile.cbl and overwrites
myfile.cbl with the resulting source program.