Re: BrainStorming on changes/addtions

As long as we are compiling a wish list, I would like to see some sort of
%value function as in basic.  I have had call to design a screen field as
char for input accepting only numerics; then right justify, fill with zeros
and move it to a numeric variable to be used in the program's calcs.  I
could not find such a function.  The others seem to convert numeric to
numeric.  Basic, what I recall, was a value function that returns the value
of a char variable. It would save a couple of lines of code.  (I am able to
right justify and zero fill the char field using eval and subst then move it
to a numeric field).   Soooo....   Star light, Star bright, First Star I see
tonight, ....

Eurrat Saylor, Jr.
End of the Trail       endofthetrail@skyenet.net
Walkerton, IN

-----Original Message-----
From: boldt@ca.ibm.com <boldt@ca.ibm.com>
To: RPG400-L@midrange.com <RPG400-L@midrange.com>
Date: Tuesday, August 17, 1999 9:10 AM
Subject: RE: CF - One last question


>
>
>John wrote:
>>Thankyou Buck,
>>You captured the exact flavor of my comments/concerns.
>>As for keywords,  The other languages mentioned "Grew up"  that way,
>>We are talking about taking a 90degree turn  in this language
>>when we say "Starting tomorrow the following words are keywords".
>>
>>This CF thing is obviously "Going in",  and   I still think that we don't
>>know
>>what the Real impact to our coding will be.  Nor do we know all the
>>ramifications that it will have.
>>
>>I believe that Barb, George, Hans, will do their best giving us what they
>>think we
>>want/need,  but over the last 10 years I have found,  that sometimes what
>>they
>>think they hear we wanted,   is not what we sometimes think we said.
>>
>>I'm just always  cautious about a change this big.
>>They only ONE chance to get it right.
>>Once it goes in,   IT AIN'T NEVER COMING OUT.
>
>Hi John!  We do appreciate your concern.  This is certainly one of
>the more controversial things we've done in a long, long time.
>Even V3R1 of ILE RPG wasn't this controversial, IMHO!  That's why
>we've been much more open about this, asking for public input on at
>least two separate issues regarding the design.  My gut feeling now
>is that there will be no further "tweaks" to the function (other
>than bug fixes) and that what we have now is what will ship.
>Several times now, I expressed the desire to see the discussion die
>down, only to bring on more through my own questions.  Hopefully,
>this is it now!
>
>So far, this has been an interesting experience, using the internet
>to help us nail down the design of a new function.  In the past,
>we've had to rely on the advice of a relatively small number of RPG
>users, often in face-to-face meetings.  (For example, Charlie
>encouraged us to beef up support for overlay subfields and Bob
>shamed us into allowing numeric on %CHAR.)
>
>But now, we can reach many more.  Those RPG users with internet
>access may not totally represent a true cross-section of all RPG
>users, but this group probably best represents those who are most
>interested in the leading edge stuff.  As I believe you know, I'm
>a big fan of "brainstorming".  My colleagues here know that I often
>suggest "wild and crazy" ideas, which sometimes result in ideas
>worth pursuing.  As a result of discussions on this mailing list,
>I've added at least half a dozen items to our proposed enhancements
>list, most of which will probably appear on our next poll.  And
>some ideas brought up in this mailing list have already made their
>way into the compiler.
>
>Cheers!  Hans
>
>Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com
>
>
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