Can Modern Syntax beat 1977?

Computer Recreations Creative Computing, Sept-Oct. 1977 D. Van Tassel

Syntax Messages

In the March-April 1977 issue I suggested you write a program to generate as many different syntax-error messages as possible with as few statements in the program as possible.

I received a few responses but first prize must go to Wayne M. Compton of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He sent me a COBOL program with just one statement which generated 570 error messages. The statement was just the program name paragraph:

PROGRAM-ID. ERRMSG.

The compiler then went wild and generated 570 error messages. He ran this program on a IBM 370 OS/VS system. If you have access to such a system you might try it.

3 comments

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082349872349872 2y ago ↗

ERRMSG yields a list of all error messages, so the compiler wasn't "going wild", but behaving according to spec. A modern COBOL should beat that handily; no doubt they've added at least one or two new errors between 1977 and now.

source: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/cobol-error-messages-are-n...

greenbit 2y ago ↗

Have seen C++ go berserk and throw miles of errors when template implementation gets fumbled. Have also seen Java go stark raving mad over relatively minor infractions. Wish I had some examples handy.

InfamousRece 2y ago ↗

C++ is hard to beat: https://www.tumblr.com/tgceec/74534916370/results-of-the-gra...