RE: OT - Shutting down an RS/6000 ?

> From: James Rich
>
> You are referring to the dynamic calls in RPG (at least I think you are),
> i.e. the CALL opcode.  In C there is no real equivalent, certainly nothing
> that can have multiple parameters that all get changed by the called
> program (other than the environment variable example I already mentioned).
> I won't argue with that.  However, it is interesting to note that more and
> more people are switching to bound calls (i.e. CALLP) which are the same
> as C's function calls.  Indeed, in my own programs I rarely use CALL at
> all.  But I make extensive use of eval variable=function(parms).

You're absolutely right here, James.  Personally, I think the concept of
functions in subprocedures is better than dynamic calls.  And while I forget
what the name is in Unix, I'm pretty sure the concept of a shared library
(like a DLL in Windows or SRVPGM in OS/500) is available.  But as I said,
the older concept of the dynamic call is prevalent among many programmers
and was a very important feature to pre-ILE environments.

However, there's still the issue of having one program call another.  One
standalone program cannot call another using a PLIST type of structure.  Is
that an issue?  Only for us old OPM dinosuars.  As the Hans's of the world
drag us kicking and screaming into the newer models, we'll probably forget
about the old PLIST entirely.

Joe