RE: Using RPG /Free how do I get an ISO variable into a non-date 8,0 variable in *USA format

> From: James Rich
>
> You don't have to debug.  Just recompile your code.  But what you are
> talking about is rewriting your code in free form.

So you consider the move from RPG IV to freeform to be a "higher order" mvoe
than the move from RPG III to RPG IV?

I don't.  RPG IV gave us procedures and ILE support, a truly new paradigm
for the language, which to my mind is more than anything freeform gives us.

To me, freeform is far more a syntactical change than an functional change.
Perhaps I'm mistaken.  Perhaps freeform RPG is a bifurcation of the
language.  If it is, then IBM should call it a new language, and had better
plan on supporting both syntaxes FOREVER.  Do you think that's the case?
Remember, this is the company that told everyone to use WebSphere, but if
you're runnning on Standard Edition you can't upgrade to V5R2 because V5R2
specifically does not support 3.5SE.  This is the company that told everyone
to use Visual Age for Java, then dumped it for Eclipse.


> So I guess I think
> that option 3 (a mix of free form and non) is the only way to go.  I don't
> see why that seems unacceptable?

Gawd, man, have you no decency?  Twice the syntax knowledge required.  Twice
the programming ability.  If I have a programmer who doesn't know freeform,
they can't fix the programs written in freeform.  Any manager will tell you
the LAST thing he wants today is to have to add yet another syntax to the
mix.

Joe