LOC LONG 53 msg "Line reference 53 is undefined" since v2.7

Mueh,

I was able to confirm this. There appears to be a parsing error in Locate.

LOC LONG n is supposed locate lines longer than 'n' columns. (P.S. George, I wish the test were for >= instead of > than.)

What happens is that FIRST, 'n' is being (incorrectly) treated like a line number.

Then, IF the 'line number' is valid, the 'n' is treated like a length.

Conclusion: Mass confusion is going on; there is a dire need for a fix.
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Also: I issued LOC LONG 2 3 and got, "Using LONG requires LRECL > 0 or a length operand". Very strange.

WHILE I'M AT IT ...

George, there is another locate problem, dealing with colors.

If I have a file with one line that has RED data, and I say LOC RED, the line is not found. If I exclude the whole file and then do FIND P'=' ALL RED, the line is found.

(P.S. I don't want to add work for you, but I find myself wishing that if I say FIND ALL RED that the FIND command would 'see' the color name RED and just assume P'=' but that would be asking a lot.)

R

===> More information

I had a 5-line file with one line having RED. I excluded the file and then said LOC NOT RED ALL

Result: All 5 lines were unexcluded, and I get a message, "LOCATE matched 6 lines". YES, six lines.

If I re-issue the command with all of the lines unexcluded, I get a correct message of 5 lines.

Hmm ...

MUEH: Your correction is valid, thanks for tracking it down.

Robert: LOCATE has been a dumping ground forever for all the various little "let's provide a search for xxx, lets add a search for yyy etc. As such it is a dogs breakfast of pile-on additions and kludges; you couldn't pick a worse command to uncover some obscure bug.

George