Re[7]: New Opcodes - %SETCELL

     I think the key point has been missed here:
     
     Why don't you ask Microsoft to add a SetCell method to Visual Basic?  
     It's not gonna happen.  But I betcha someone somewhere has written a 
     .OCX to do it.  It might be free; you might have to pay for it.  But 
     it's been done.
     
     There may be a bunch of people who think %setcell is an absolute must 
     for inclusion in RPG.  Personally, I think XML parsing would be a darn 
     sight more useful.  Others might have a lot of use for a BIF that 
     converts numeric values to words (e.g. twenty-six).
     
     Which of these BIFs should IBM hard-wire into the RPG compiler?  How 
     long are you prepared to wait for them?  Is it _really_ such a big 
     deal to /COPY a prototype, and bind to the service program?  Maybe the 
     RPG team could even come up with a way of "externally describing" the 
     prototypes from the service program.
     
     Granted, you may not have the time or energy to devote to coding these 
     things yourself.  But those of us who do, should try it.  Somebody 
     somewhere is going to have to write code to parse an Excel sheet.  It 
     would be really great if the code to do that were written as a module 
     and published somewhere - it doesn't even have to be free.  As I said 
     before, it could be a nice little earner.
     
     I expect Java to be a big success, in part because it is so cleanly 
     extensible.  The vast bulk of the language is implemented in class 
     libraries anyway.  Personally I would much rather see OO aspects 
     introduced to RPG (and externally-described service programs!), than 
     have the development team spend time implementing functionality in 
     BIFs that more properly belongs in libraries.
     
     ____________
     Paul Cunnane
     The Learning Company


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re[6]: New Opcodes - %SETCELL
Author:  Norman.Rae@mckhboc.com at InterNet
Date:    08-09-99 8:46 am


     
     
     
     So let me see if I've got this straight:
     
     <<SNIP>>
     
To get back on topic, if you want better API's for IFS, write your 
own procedures and share them with others so they can benefit too. 
Quite simply, now that we have procedures in the language, any 
request for new function in RPG we see that could easily be 
implemented by some code in a procedure is not taken very seriously 
here.  We look for new function that can't otherwise be done easily 
in the language today.
     
Cheers!  Hans
     
     <<SNIP>>
     
     In other words, we don't want to do any development anymore.  DO IT 
     YOURSELF!!!
     
     I don't know about other companies, but here they are not interested 
     in advancing the AS/400 world, or RPG.  They want me to concentrate on 
     the business needs, anything else I may do keeps me from that task and 
     I am actively discouraged from this.  I know its shortsighted, but 
     that's the way it is!
     
     Norman
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