RE: "extract" command enhancement

Booth,

I'm starting to see the light!  I will confess that some of the talk about new
%bifs for everything under the sun kinda put me in a state of euphoric stupor.
For those of us who still have yet to "burn" our first generic procedure, I
think the idea of Toronto-created bifs has high appeal (as opposed to those of
you who have finished putting all your generic routines in procedures and
writing one now is like riding a bicycle.)  I guess I'm looking for the Redbook
that Jon Paris and company are trying to get to press.  The current IBM
documentation for using APIs and writing procedures, IMO, stinks.  As others
have mentioned on this list, what is needed are examples with _working_,
_documented_ code.

Your post, however, was the type of argument against the current wave of %bif
and other less meaningful enhancements that really struck home and got me to
think "out of the box" as far as enhancements to RPG IV is concerned.  I am
right with you on the topic of subfile programming.  I've done hundreds of
subfile apps over the course of my 15-year career, using different types of
subfiles and subfile techniques, and yet it seems like subfile programming still
requires a master's degree in the mystical arts.  I've got several templates
that I use (both the DDS and RPG skeleton source), and still there is so much
complexity involved in getting them to work properly.

To my mind, subfiles have so many silly-assed restrictions (hmmm, starting to
get off-topic...)  Well, let's just say that your idea for simplifying subfile
programming really hit home here.  I don't know that Toronto would have the
budget for simplifying such a complex piece of code and, what with the supposed
move away from green-screen (yeah, right, maybe in 20 years!), probably won't be
where they want to spend their money.  But, hey, if nobody mentions it...

- Dan Bale

_______________________ Original Message _____________________
ah man, off we go.  More %bif stuff.  Sorry, ...

(snip)

These %bifs may be fun and really good for trivia tests and certification exams,
but if there's all this energy to burn why not some energy directed to the green
screen which is far from dead?  Why not subfiles that ordinary programmers can
write from scratch in less than two days?  Why not windows that act like windows
and don't need extensive programming  to set pushbuttons or footers for the
window?  Why not a simple way to leave the underlying
screens undisturbed during and after the window's display? Why not some
way of using all of the colors without those damned column separators?

(snip, snip, snip)

That is a personal opinion, not expert testimony.





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