07-309

To:          J3
From:        Dick Hendrickson
Subject:     Inquire by unit inconsistencies
Date: 2007 October 26


NUMBER: F03/00xx
TITLE: inquire by unit inconsistencies
KEYWORDS: inquire, unit, not connected
DEFECT TYPE: Erratum
STATUS: J3 consideration in progress


QUESTION:

There are many things that can be inquired about, such as ACTION
or READ, that are purely file or connection properties.  In
some cases, such as ACTION, the specifier description includes
"If there is no connection [the result is] the value UNDEFINED"
or similar words.  In other cases, such as READ, there seems
to be a tacit assumption that there is a file connected to the
unit.  The descriptions refer to "the file" and don't specify a
result if there is no connection.  In most cases, there is a
phrase like "if the processor is unable to determine if the
file ... [the result is] {UNDEFINED, UNKNOWN, -1, etc.}".

Question 1)  Are the inquire specifiers DIRECT, ENCODING,
FORMATTED, NAMED, NEXTREC, NUMBER, POS, READ, READWRITE,
SEQUENTIAL, SIZE, STREAM, UNFORMATTED, and WRITE allowed
in an INQUIRE by unit when there is no file connected to the
unit?

Question 2)  If so, should the descriptions for the above
specifiers be clarified by adding phrases such as "if there is
no file specified or connected" to the "UNKNOWN" result
descriptions?


ANSWER:

Question 1)  Yes.  In an inquiry by unit, the specifiers have
little meaning when there is no file connected to the unit.
However, the standard should specify the results.

Question 2)  Yes, edits are supplied below.


EDITS:

Sample edit
9.9.1.8  212:15 add at the end of the last sentence
"or if the unit specified by UNIT= is not connected to a file"



SUBMITTED BY: Dick Hendrickson

HISTORY: 07-xxx    m182  F03/00xx Submitted