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

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:54:36 -0800, Tony Carolla <carolla@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Interesting.  I wonder what the payback for using this instead of
> F-specs is.  I guess, as Bob said, you don't have to know the filename
> at compile time, until you actually open the file.  I can do this with
> an EXTFILE variable though.
> 
> Of course, the file that is named by an EXTFILE variable has to match
> the format of the one used at compile time.  But no matter what,
> unless we are talking about XML, or some other 'internally described'
> file type, you still have to know what format the data is in at
> compile time.
> 
> Is there a performance boost?  Can you control how many records are
> read in each disk I/O request?  This would be useful in programs that
> do alot of I/O, but even for that, an override command is still
> easier.

the big advantage for me is that it is modular and procedure friendly.
 I can open a file in a procedure in one module, use it in another
module, then close it in a 3rd. What controls the show are the
parameters passed from one procedure to the next.  Which is what
modular programming is all about.

-Steve