Re: V5 - RPG announcements?

I took a peek in the V5R1 RPG ILE Reference manual at the info center.
Hopefully IBM won't sue me for copying this page:

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What's New This Release?

The ILE RPG compiler is part of the IBM WebSphere Development Studio for
iSeries product, which now includes the C/C++ and COBOL compilers, and the
Application Development ToolSet tools.
The major enhancements to RPG IV since V4R4 are easier interfacing with
Java,
new built-in functions, free form calculation specifications, control of
which file is
opened, qualified subfield names, and enhanced error handling.
The following list describes these enhancements:
  Improved support for calls between Java and ILE RPG using the Java Native
Interface (JNI):
- A new data type: Object
- A new definition specification keyword: CLASS
- The LIKE definition specification keyword has been extended to support
objects.
- The EXTPROC definition specification keyword has been extended to support
Java procedures.
- New status codes.
v New built-in functions:
- Functions for converting a number into a duration that can be used in
arithmetic expressions: %MSECONDS, %SECONDS, %MINUTES, %HOURS,
%DAYS, %MONTHS, and %YEARS.
- The %DIFF function, for subtracting one date, time, or timestamp value
from
another.
- Functions for converting a character string (or date or timestamp) into a
date,
time, or timestamp: %DATE, %TIME, and %TIMESTAMP.
- The %SUBDT function, for extracting a subset of a date, time, or
timestamp.
- Functions for allocating or reallocating storage: %ALLOC and %REALLOC.
- Functions for finding an element in an array: %LOOKUP, %LOOKUPGT,
%LOOKUPGE, %LOOKUPLT, and %LOOKUPLE.
- Functions for finding an element in a table: %TLOOKUP, %TLOOKUPGT,
%TLOOKUPGE, %TLOOKUPLT, and %TLOOKUPLE.
- Functions for verifying that a string contains only specified characters
(or
finding the first or last exception to this rule): %CHECK and %CHECKR
- The %XLATE function, for translating a string based on a list of
from-characters and to-characters.
- The %OCCUR function, for getting or setting the current occurrence in a
multiple-occurrence data structure.
- The %SHTDN function, for determining if the operator has requested
shutdown.
- The %SQRT function, for calculating the square root of a number.
v A new free-form syntax for calculation specifications. A block of
free-form
calculation specifcations is delimited by the compiler directives /FREE and
/END-FREE

v You can specify the EXTFILE and EXTMBR keywords on the file specification
to
control which external file is used when a file is opened.
v Support for qualified names in data structures:
|?- A new definition specification keyword: QUALIFIED. This keyword
specifies
that subfield names will be qualified with the data structure name.
- A new definition specification keyword: LIKEDS. This keyword specifies
that
subfields are replicated from another data structure. The subfield names
will
be qualified with the new data structure name. LIKEDS is allowed for
prototyped parameters; it allows the parameter's subfields to be used
directly
in the called procedure.
- The INZ definition specification keyword has been extended to allow a data
structure to be initialized based on its parent data structure.
v Enhanced error handling:
- Three new operation codes (MONITOR, ON-ERROR, and ENDMON) allow
you to define a group of operations with conditional error handling based on
the status code.
Other enhancements have been made to this release as well. These include:
v You can specify parentheses on a procedure call that has no parameters.
v You can specify that a procedure uses ILE C or ILE CL calling conventions,
on
the EXTPROC definition specification keyword.
v The following /DEFINE names are predefined: *VnRnMn, *ILERPG,
*CRTBNDRPG, and *CRTRPGMOD.
v The search string in a %SCAN operation can now be longer than string being
searched. (The string will not be found, but this will no longer generate an
error
condition.)
v The parameter to the DIM, OCCURS, and PERRCD keywords no longer needs
to be previously defined.
v The %PADDR built-in function can now take either a prototype name or an
entry point name as its argument.
v A new operation code, ELSEIF, combines the ELSE and IF operation codes
without requiring an additional ENDIF.
v The DUMP operation code now supports the A extender, which means that a
dump is always produced - even if DEBUG(*NO) was specified.
v A new directive, /INCLUDE, is equivalent to /COPY except that /INCLUDE is
not expanded by the SQL preprocessor. Included files cannot contain embedded
SQL or host variables.
v The OFLIND file-specification keyword can now take any indicator,
including a
named indicator, as an argument.
v The LICOPT (licensed internal code options) keyword is now available on
the
CRTRPGMOD and CRTBNDRPG commands.
v The PREFIX file description keyword can now take an uppercase character
literal
as an argument. The literal can end in a period, which allows the file to be
used
with qualified subfields.
v The PREFIX definition specification keyword can also take an uppercase
character literal as an argument. This literal cannot end in a period.

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Peter Dow
Dow Software Services, Inc.
909 425-0194 voice
909 425-0196 fax



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