RE: Prototype for a command parameter.

On Wed, 12 Dec 2001 bmorris@ca.ibm.com wrote:
>
> >Oh, yes... I knew they added 8-bit integer fields, but I didn't realize
> >that they continued to expand the (worthless) "B" data type to 8-bits as
> >well.
>
> Scott, 2B 0 isn't an 8-bit integer.  It's a 16-bit integer, like it
> always was.  2B 0 isn't an expansion.  It's been there "forever" in RPG
> and DDS at least, and is only supported in ILE RPG for compatibility
> reasons.  (Even if I-binary had been introduced in V3R1, we'd have had
> to keep B-binary.)

Yes, I know that they've been around forever, because I used to use them
in RPG III.

Here's what I'm thinking of...   in RPG III, I used to do something
like this:

 IDSCVT       DS
 I                                    B   1   10DSBIN
 I                                        1   1 DSCHAR
 C*
 C                     MOVE SOMETHING DSCHAR
 C                     DSPLY          DSBIN
 C*
 C                     MOVE *ON       *INLR

I couldn't do this because the compiler complains that "DSBIN" must be
either 2 or 4 bytes long.

So, I guess that's where my confusion came from.  I understand now that
the binary type has to be 2 or 4 bytes long, but you can define it as
"1B 0" thru "9B 0" and the compiler will just not use the extra decimal
digits.

Thanks again for the clarification.