Don't bark up the wrong tree

Before beginning a discussion of compilation error repair one thing needs mention.  GAMS frequently marks compilation problems in latter parts of the code that are not really errors, but rather the messages are caused by errors in the earlier code.  Case may occur where an omitted or extra semicolon or parenthesis in otherwise perfectly coded GAMS programs have caused hundreds of error messages.  One should start fixing errors from the top and after fixing several errors rather than puzzling over obscure and often improper messages, rerun the compilation to find out if those repairs took to care of later marked errors.  It is hardly ever desirable to try to fix all errors pointed out in one pass.