Re: [open-cobol-list] Sort utility within OC

[Roger While]

David,
Can you throw over what you have please.

Some thoughts -

1)
I don't think we should clutter the command line.

MF's mfsort has precisely 2 calling sequences :
mfsort <instructions>
and
mfsort take <filename>

ie. All input/output file(s) are in the instructions.

2)
We need to define a (preferably compatible) grammar
for the instructions.

3)
Given the above, we could take MF's syntax as a start point.
(MF have the doc online at www.microfocus.com)

4)
Note that mfsort does not offer conditional evaluation
as Cris's examples.
(I am not sure we would want to support this)

5)
Given the above, it should be possible to "flex" a grammar.
We could then define a standard API for what the flexxer
produces. This would be the specific hooks into the
Cobol runtime of OC/TC.
Dependant on how the flexxer works out, then David and I can
agree on a common API.

Roger