RE: Adding pointers to RPG language.

Well said, Hans...!



| -----Original Message-----
| Behalf Of boldt@ca.ibm.com
| Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 4:37 PM


|
| Second, I believe pointers may well be overused in RPG.  Sure,
| they're great when you have to call some API.  But beyond that, I
| wonder if they're being used just because they might offer some
| "cool", "geeky" way to implement some function.
|
| For example, if you need to manage some varying sized amount of data,
| there are several different ways to handle it.  If you're dealing
| with a compute-bound application (like a compiler), a reasonable
| approach would be to use a linked list, using pointers and malloc's.
| But application programs typically are I/O bound, not compute bound,
| and so program performance is less of a concern.  In this case, a
| table in a database would be easier to understand and easier to
| maintain, along with other advantages, like persistence.
|
| In other words, just because you have some capability, it doesn't
| mean you have to use it.
|
| The essence of good software engineering is not just knowing how to
| use some tool, but also knowing how NOT to use it.

Tough calls, at times...