To: J3                                                     J3/19-241
From: Malcolm Cohen
Subject: Are failed images in a newly-created team?
Date: 2019-October-15
Reference: 19-181

1. Introduction

Paper 19-181 contains five purported interpretation requests glommed into
a single paper. This paper discusses the second of them.


2. The alleged problem

From 19-181:
    QUESTION 2:
    If there are any failed images in a team that executes a FORM TEAM
    statement, do these images belong to any of the new teams?

    ANSWER 2:
    No, provided the statement is successful or returns with its
    stat-variable having the value STAT_FAILED_IMAGE. See edit 1 above.


3. Response from /INTERP

The question is uninteresting and the answer is without merit.

(a) The reference to "edit 1" is not relevant.

(b) Unsuccessful execution other than STAT_FAILED_IMAGE does not create any
    new teams nor does it define the team variable (paragraph 2), and so
    the question is moot in that case, and the answer is thus seriously
    misleading.

(c) Paragraph 2 explicitly creates new teams holding each of the "active
    images". That explicitly excludes failed images.

As the answer to the question follows directly from paragraph 2 of the
standard, /INTERP declines to accept this as an interpretation request.


4. Response from the Editor

Although 11.6.9 is very explicit about what happens with successful
execution, and what happens with STAT_FAILED_IMAGE execution, it is
less explicit about the effects of other unsuccessful executions.

It might be a good idea to have a paragraph, say p7, that says something
like:
    "Execution of a FORM TEAM statement that assigns a positive value other
     than STAT_FAILED_IMAGE to stat-variable does not create any teams, and
     the team-variable becomes undefined on all active images."

On the other hand, unless we specify different semantics, most unsuccessful
executions are going to involve lack of conformance with the standard, so
this is not as useful as it appears.

/EDIT suggests that /HPC consider whether such a normative paragraph, or
other clarifying wordsmithing within 11.6.9, would be useful for the next
revision.

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