Re: ancient OS history, ARM is sort of channeling the IBM 360

According to Lawrence D'Oliveiro  <ldo@nz.invalid>:

Again, it depends.  For COBOL, you didn't have to specify anything. The
compiler set up everything for you for you, and it "just worked".

>
Maybe it didn’t. Given the way locate-mode I/O is set up, it should
automatically fall back to copy-mode if the conditions are not right. So
maybe you were in fact using copy-mode, not locate-mode, most of the time,
without realizing it.

You know, you could admit that just once you're wrong.

Or you could read the COBOL manuals, e.g. page 91 of the DOS COBOL
Programmer's guide:

 Files can be processed using multiple buffers. Logical records are
 referenced in the proper biock by adjusting registers (using them as
 pointers).

 This technique eliminates the need for moving a record from the
 buffer area to a separate record work area, as well as the record work
 area itself. The record can be operated on directly in the buffer
 area.

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