By default, the standard COBOL language supported by this system, as documented in the Language Reference, already supports much of the RM/COBOL syntax and behavior. You can, however, enable some additional RM/COBOL syntax, using the RM Compiler directive. Setting the RM directive when you submit your RM/COBOL source programs to this COBOL system, ensures that most of the programs are accepted the first time they are submitted. The additional syntax enabled by the RM directive is documented in the section Ryan McFarland COBOL V2.0 Syntax Support in your Language Reference.
If you normally set the ANSI switch when you submit your RM/COBOL source programs to the RM/COBOL system, you must specify the ANSI parameter with the RM directive when you submit these programs to this COBOL system.
Setting the RM directive automatically sets additional Compiler directives, namely NOTRUNC, OLDINDEX, NOOPTIONAL-FILE, RETRYLOCK, ALIGN"2" and SEQUENTIAL"LINE". See the topic Compiler directives for full details of these Compiler directives.
The system will also behave as if you had specified the following syntax:
sign trailing separate
for signed numeric data items, and:
lock mode is automatic
for each file in the program which has no explicit locking syntax declared. When you set the RM directive with the ANSI parameter, the same Compiler directives are set as for the RM directive, except that the SEQUENTIAL directive is set as SEQUENTIAL"RECORD". Also, the system behaves as if you had specified the syntax:
sign trailing included
for signed numeric data items, and:
lock mode is automatic
for each file in the program which has no explicit locking syntax declared.
We also recommend that you set the NOMF directive when you submit your RM/COBOL source programs to this COBOL system. This ensures that only those words which are treated as reserved words under the ANSI '74 COBOL standard are regarded as reserved words by this COBOL system.
Setting the NORM directive disables the syntax enabled when the RM directive was set, and automatically resets the additional Compiler directives to NOSPZERO, TRUNC"ANSI", NOOLDINDEX, OPTIONAL-FILE, NORETRYLOCK, ALIGN"8" and SEQUENTIAL"RECORD". Additionally, the system behaves as if you had specified the syntax:
sign trailing included
for signed numeric data items, and:
lock mode is exclusive
for each file in the program which has no explicit locking syntax declared. The final states of the additional directives set when you use the NORM directive are not necessarily the same as their initial default states.