RE: Why we don't use procedures more (was MOVE opcode in freeform / strange behavior w/%editc)

On 28 Feb 2002 at 17:10, Richard B Baird wrote:

>
> I've had 3 IT jobs in 19 years, two of them in non-hourly 'project'
> consulting and my current one in hourly contracting.  I've been the boss,
> I've been the employer, and I've been the peon (now, i'm the peon :)  but
> I'd never made less money one year than the last until last year.

[snip]

> I'm as good or better P/A as I've ever worked with, and that's no brag,
> it's because I work harder, longer AND I have the desire and ability to
> grasp new things and keep up with the times.
>
> But I've just had a real block on the ile stuff.  I bought a book on it a
> couple years ago - but I just couldn't get through it.  There are now 100
> ways to set up one of these beasts (service pgm, bound, by reference, by
> copy, prototyping, procedures, sub-procedures, bifs, activation groups).
> I've got nothing to base any decision on. I've nothing to compare it to.
>

Rick,

Is it that you're having difficulty with binding, passing by reference, 
prototyping, etc,
or that you're having trouble fitting these into RPG?  That is, have you built 
up
preconceptions (forgive me, I'm not being insulting, I just can't think of a 
better word)
about how to use RPG that are preventing you from incorporating these concepts
into your usage?

You can do a lot of this stuff in C++ on your PC at home.   Might be easier to 
learn
this stuff in C, and then bring the concepts back to RPG.  Hell, even VB 
supports
pointers and passing by reference.  Coming to an understanding of how to exploit
this stuff might be easier for you outside of the confines of RPG and your
preconceptions about it.

I always had trouble with RPG.  I learned my craft in C on Unix (until I became 
a
huge AS/400 convert years ago), and RPG's logic cycle always seemed backwards
to me.  Now with IV and it's support for all this different stuff, I find it as 
easy to get
what I need done in RPG as almost anywhere else, and just use what I think is
appropriate.  I now do a lot of three tiered C/S work using VB or C for client
development, and RPG on the 400 for server development (very easy and effective,
now that RPG supports sockets).

What really helped me was Cozzi's RPG IV book, and Chris' Peter's client/server
AS/400 integration book.  I learned a s**tload from that one.

I've read your posts and I think you're selling yourself short.  Keep at it 
until it gives.
Pick something you've done before, like an API call, but make yourself use a
prototype to define it and a callp to execute it.  Then, force yourself to 
create and use
a procedure.  I think if you eat the elephant one bite at a time, you might 
find it easier
than attempting to use/understand/exploit all this stuff at once.

--Chris