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Path: utzoo!utcsri!greg
From: greg@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: MIPS to offer COBOL
Message-ID: <4159@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Feb-87 23:30:27 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsri.4159
Posted: Tue Feb 17 23:30:27 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Feb-87 21:31:50 EST
References: <14392@amdcad.UUCP> <28200006@ccvaxa>
Reply-To: greg@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 34
Summary: 

In article <28200006@ccvaxa> aglew@ccvaxa.UUCP writes:
>Talking about which - has anybody got a picture formatting package
>for C? Pictures are damned nice at times. It could probably be
>wired into printf formats like this:
>
>    printf("%P[$$$,$$$,$$$,$$9.99]",number);
>
>Andy "Krazy" Glew. Gould CSD-Urbana.    USEnet:  ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!aglew
>1101 E. University, Urbana, IL 61801    ARPAnet: aglew@gswd-vms.arpa

The problem here is that COBOL pictures are designed to be nice to
look at but are not the best representation for controlling run-time
conversion. The best way might be a preprocessor, which would convert
from:

	printf( "total: %p\n", PIC($$$,$$$,$$$,$$9.99), number );

to:

static struct { char *pic_background; short pic_dp,pic_flags } _pics[]={
...
{ "000           ", 2, _PIC_LEFT_DOLLAR | _PIC_COMMAS },
...
};
...
	printf( "total: %p\n",&_pics[6], number );

...or something like that.
The intended meaning of all this is left as an exercise  :-)

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Smith     University of Toronto      UUCP: ..utzoo!utcsri!greg
Have vAX, will hack...