Re: *** ADMIN: New article posted at imho.midrange.com

[Douglas Handy <dhandy@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mark,
 
> Granted, but really all you need to do is put all of your homegrown 'bifs'
> in a binding directory and include in your h-spec. 

And a copy member with the prototypes.

But still, I think it is very easy to do.  I've always felt the
ability to create subprocedures, whether local to a program or as part
of a service program, is the single most important advantage of
RPG/ILE.  A binding directory, service programs, and copy book
prototypes make them almost as good as being built-in functions.

With one major caveat:  we don't have full operational descriptor
support, nor can we overload a function.  Without full operational
descriptors, there are some limitations of what we can accomplish with
numeric arguments.  And without overloading, we may need multiple
versions of what may otherwise be a single function.

The lack of overloading has never hampered me that much.  The lack of
operational descriptors for non-character fields is a bigger
limitation, though I understand it is not under Toronoto's control so
I won't keep beating that horse.

However, to me the current binding directories, service programs, and
prototype includes are close enough to "built-in" that I don't see a
big advantage to being able to "register" them with the compiler.

Doug