I'm using gnucobol2.2 and ran into a confusing circumstance that did not
exist when the same code ran in version 1.1.
When calling a subprogram which used "IS INITIAL" like so:
PROGRAM-ID. ProgramName IS INITIAL.
Code inside the program such as:
MULTIPLY PRICE-LOW BY 1.10 GIVING WS-TEMP
Would fail with an "attempt to access unallocated memory" type error.
(But only on the second call to the subprogram, the first worked as
expected).
The issue was the literal 1.10, and not WS-TEMP or PRICE-LOW, which took
a bit of debugging to figure out...
For example
MOVE 1.10 TO WS-TEMP
MULTIPLY PRICE-LOW BY WS-TEMP GIVING WS-TEMP
would work without issue on multiple calls. (Also, if I removed the "IS
INITIAL" from the identification division either set of code worked fine.)
My question:
Is this a known bug (or feature?)
I'm able to work around it using either the inital MOVE or removing the
IS INITIAL, but I'd like to understand why it's happening. (And did NOT
happen with Gnu Cobol 1.1)
Thanks for any insight. If needed I can attempt to provide a simplified
sample program that demonstrates the error, but I was hoping somebody
with more experience already knows the answer....
Jay
