RE: free-format move *USA date value to 6-digit numeric in YMDformat

 <Scott Klement Says>
No kidding.  I'm very tired of these "half-written" features that RPG 
seems to get.

At various releases we have had all of the following:

- Pointers without pointer arithmetic
- No MOVE in free-format, but no way to convert char to number
- %char() not converting numbers to character
- %dec() and %int() not converting character to number.
- %dec() and %int() not converting dates to numbers
- DSPLY op-code and requirement for at least a space in the factor 1
- Read data into a data structure, but only for program described files
- Read data into a DS, but only if you use the record format name and
LIKEREC
- Prototypes, but no way to pass a data structure.
- LIKEDS but not with an array.
- LIKEDS with an array, but no LOOKUP or SORTA

It just seems like they leave out things that they know people will
need. 
They introduce half of what we need at once, and introduce the rest at 
some point in the future.

This leads to poor adoption of the new techniques, because they're
awkward 
at first.  Once they become less awkward, people don't adopt them
because 
they have to remain compatible with old releases.

It also leads to it being difficult to teach anything, because you have
to 
teach people 10 different ways of doing everything.
 </Scott Klement Says>

Too true...perhaps wait until the "feature" is truly a "feature" before
implementing???

Thanks,
Tommy Holden