Early checks

The Rexx Parser is able to detect at parse time certain errors that other processors are only able to detect at execution time. Since the detection is done at parse time, the parser is able to reach dead code, like branches that cannot be taken, or code after a EXIT or RETURN instructions, and also procedures and ::ROUTINES that will never be called.

We have attempted to mimick the behaviour of the ooRexx interpreter, even when this behaviour is obviously erroneous; please refer to the Bugs section for details.

  If .False Then Say Length(a,b) -- Dead branch, too many arguments
  Exit
                                 -- Unreachable code
  Guard On                       -- GUARD is only valid inside a method

::Method NeverCalled             -- Method never calles
  Signal NonExistent             -- This label does not exist

Early checking is controlled by the earlycheck entry of the options passed to the Rexx.Parser class. The value associated with earlycheck has to be an array of uppercase strings chosen between "BIFS", "GUARD" and "SIGNAL". The effect of specifiying these options is described below.

BIFS

When the earlychecks array has an item equal to "BIFS", built-in function calls, procedural calls to built-in functions, and CALL ON instructions whose trapname is a built-in function are checked against the built-in function definition. Namely,

If the number of arguments passed to the function is greater than the maximum arguments allowed, a SYNTAX error is raised. In most cases, the error raised is 40.4, "Too many arguments in invocation of &1; maximum expected is &2", but in some few cases 88.922 is raised instead ("Too many arguments in invocation; &1 expected": this is due to an anomaly in the ooRexx interpreter, by which BEEP, DIRECTORY and FILESPEC are handled as external functions, even when they are defined to be BIFs; their error handling is also different from the other BIFs).

  Say ChangeStr(a,b,c,d,e)    -- Too many arguments in invocation of CHANGESTR; maximum expected is 3

If the number of arguments passed to the function is smaller than the minimum number of required arguments, a SYNTAX error is raised. In most cases, the error raised is 40.3, "Not enough arguments in invocation of &1; minimum expected is &2", although for some few BIFs, 88.901 is raised instead ("Missing argument; argument &1 is required").

  Say Left("String")          -- Not enough arguments in invocation of LEFT; minumum expected is 2

If there are enough arguments but some of the required arguments are missing, a SYNTAX error is raised. In most cases, the error raised is 40.5, "Missing argument in invocation of &1; argument &2 is required", although for some few BIFs, 88.901 is raised instead.

  x = ChangsStr(,'b','c')     -- Missing argument in invocation of CHANGESTR; argument 1 is required

When the BIF has a one-letter argument (that is, an argument of which only the first letter is examined) and the corresponding parmeter is a string literal, this string literal is checked. BIFs checked this way are ARG, CONDITION, DATATYPE, DATE, FILESPEC, LINES, RXQUEUE, STREAM, STRIP, TIME, TRACE and VERIFY. The message for the TRACE BIF is special. Some of the other BIFs raise a 40.904 SYNTAX error, &1 argument &2 must be one of &3; found "&4", while still others raise a 93.915, Method option must be one of "&1"; found "&2", which is a bug. DATE and TIME do not check that literal dates and times are in the required format.

  Var = "*"
  Call Trace Var              -- "Var" is a variable; not checked
  Call Trace "*"              -- TRACE request letter must be one of "ACEFILNOR"; found "*"

When the BIF expects a whole number, literal strings, numbers, and prefix expressions consisting of any number of "-" and "+" signs followed by a number are checked. Checking is done using the DATATYPE(x,"Internal") BIF.

  Say WordPos(a,string,0)     -- Invalid position argument specified; found "0".

When the BIF expects a number (i.e., it may be whole or not), literal strings, numbers, and prefix expressions consisting of any number of "-" and "+" signs followed by a number are checked. Checking is done using the DATATYPE(x,"Number") BIF. This applies to the following BIFs: ABS, FORMAT, MAX, MIN, SIGN, TRUNC.

  Call Abs -+- "- 12"         -- result = 12

In the case of XRANGE, literal arguments are checked to ensure that they are either a single character in length, or one of the allowed POSIX classes.

  Call XRange "42"            -- XRANGE argument 1 must be a character class name or a single character; found "42"

In the case of D2C and D2X, the first argument, which is a whole number, may not have more digits than "the current setting of NUMERIC DIGITS", which is an execution-time value. In this case, the parser only checks that the supplied constant value is a number (DATATYPE(x,"Number")) containing no blanks, no dots, and no "E" exponential mark, and, if the second argument is omitted, that the supplied constant is not negative.

  Call D2C -1                 -- Length must be specified to convert a negative value

Pad characters are checked that they have exactly one character in length, and separators to see that they are the null string or a single character. Some combinations of separators are not valid in the TIME BIF, depending on the options chosen; this is not checked.

  Call Left 'a',12,'ww'       -- LEFT argument 3 must be a single character; found "ww".
  Call Date ,'20/04/25', 'E', '**' --  DATE argument 4 must be a single non-alphanumeric
                              -- character or the null string; found "**"

STREAM and RXQUEUE are not early-checked at this time.

GUARD

GUARD instructions are only allowed in the body of a method. The ooRexx interpreter raises a SYNTAX condition (code 99.911: "GUARD can only be issued in an object method invocation") when it attempts to execute a GUARD instruction in a code body which is not a method body. When the earlychecks array contains an item whose value is "GUARD", the Rexx Parser will exit with a 99.911 error code whenever a GUARD instruction is found in a non-method code body.

::Routine R
  Say "Exiting..."
  Exit

  Guard On                    -- GUARD can only be issued in an object method invocation

Signal

When a SIGNAL instruction targets a labelname which is not dynamically evaluated (i.e., when the label is a string or a symbol taken as a constant), it is easy to check whether a branchable label exists with the corresponding name. If the such a label does not exist, a 16.1 SYNTAX error is raised ('Label "&1" not found.').

  Signal NoNo                 -- Label "NONO" not found

Bugs

In the process of writing the code for the early check Parser feature, we have uncovered a number of ooRexx bugs. We are listing them here for reference.

https://sourceforge.net/p/oorexx/bugs/1885/.

Early checks

Early checks

BIFS

GUARD

Signal

Bugs

Related Bugs