Re: X-Spec (was: "RPG isn't cool")

Carsten,

I think you are correct about character fields, but in order to do this 
for numeric and other data types, you must have support for 
parameterized types.  This would give you the ability to cast any 
variable to any type.  If we had the ability to code options(*vartype) 
along with operational descriptors for all field types this could be 
done very easily.  I think this capability would add more capability 
to RPG than any of the other proposed enchantments.

David Morris

>>> Carsten Flensburg <novasol@pip.dknet.dk> 05/13/99 02:54AM >>>

...> >%Date (Convert to/from date)
> Service programs with date routines already work real good for this.

The introduction of subprocedures and support of varying length
character strings allows you to build your own bifs in all shapes &
flavours. Still I think that key-functions are best dealt with as part
of the language - if a function is generally needed why not make it
generally available, unexposed to the pitfalls of signature checking and
need for prototyping?...


Best regards,
Carsten

+---
| This is the Midrange System Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---