Re: IBM's RPG Strategy (was: Long Procedure Names)

I was hoping for REAL free format.

ASNA  did  it  years ago for their Visual RPG product (before RPG-IV) and I
thought it was great.  I was disappointed when "Free format RPG" turned out
to be "Free format RPG C-Specs only and that's all we're giving you."




                                                                                
                     
                      Tony Carolla                                              
                     
                      <carolla@xxxxxxxxx         To:      RPG programming on 
the AS400 / iSeries     
                      >                          <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>        
                     
                      Sent by:                   cc:                            
                     
                      rpg400-l-bounces@m         Subject: Re: IBM's RPG 
Strategy (was: Long          
                      idrange.com                Procedure Names)               
                     
                                                                                
                     
                                                                                
                     
                      03/23/2005 05:54                                          
                     
                      PM                                                        
                     
                      Please respond to                                         
                     
                      RPG programming on                                        
                     
                      the AS400 /                                               
                     
                      iSeries                                                   
                     
                                                                                
                     
                                                                                
                     




I was hoping for much moreI like the 'beyond 80 columns' thing, but
other than that, what about:

 - Looking up elements in DS Arrays?
 - Sorting DS Arrays?
 - Size limits on DS Arrays?
 - Better control over read/write blocking?

It's nice that they created DS arrays, but it's like the project got
shelved after their creation!  I know you can write your own search
functions using bsearch, and your own sort using qsort, but shouldn't
these be BIFs?  I believe that this would make it a more powerful
language.

And the read/write blocking control would be nice.  As it stands, you
have to override the file to control how many records get read or
written each time the operation gets issued.  It is a shame you can't
specify as an F-spec keyword, either the number of records, the number
of bytes, or at least a compiler 'hint', telling it that you will be
reading all records, or only a few.  Perhaps it could be as simple as
Block(*Yes:Full).


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