Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why do some runstream examples use uppercase control cards, while some use lower case? When does case matter?

   All directory and file names must be lower-case alphanumeric. In addition, program invocations are always lower-case. Case is ignored for all control cards. For example, "@eof" and "@EOF" are equivalent. The keyword portion of all control cards is always upper-cased before any checking is done. For user-supplied text, such as titles, what you see is what you get.

2. What's the deal with the "@eof" thing?

   The @EOF image is a holdover from the Sperry 1100 ECL which indicates an end-of-file. Since we wanted runstreams to be identical across systems, we brought the @EOF image to the RISC. When the last control card is an "@EOF", this card becomes redundant, as a true end-of-file condition works just the same.

3. Why do I have to enter the study number twice - once on the program invocation line and often on a control card?

   The study number is required on the program invocation line to enable us to build the correct file names. Since not all programs have control cards, this is the best place to put it. As for it being required on some control cards, again that is a holdover from the Sperry to enable the same runstreams to be used.