Re: Variable length MODS

 >> Or is there something wrong with this thinking?

There is nothing wrong with your thinking as far as it goes.  It just
doesn't extend into taking RPG history into account.

Remember that pointers etc. were retrofitted to RPG relatively late in its
life.  RPG applies upper bound checking to arrays and MODS based on the
size specified.  When BASED structures were introduced (for better or
worse) no change was made to the code generation in this area.  At some
point in the future one hopes that the compiler folks (are you listening
Hans and Barbara?) will allow us to specify the size of a based array etc.
via a variable.  If they make the storage reallocate itself magically
whenever I change that variable then that would be nice too - but I could
live wit just being able to specify the current size.

Until such time as they change the compiler - think of it this way - the
value for DIM is a sanity check when used with based storage - I set it to
a value that says "when it gets this big I must be looping".  Then
implement your own upper bound check the way you have to (or should do) in
many other languages.



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