Re: Reasons for using RPGIV

On 4/12/2011 7:44 PM, sjl wrote:

Thanks, Vern -

I'm not dwelling on any negatives. I'm apparently already in the dog house
with her. I'm looking for positives!

There are a couple of us who use WDSC, but the company has (at least so far)
not opted to buy RDP, so I'm stuck at version 7.

BTW, as I originally mentioned, we already have a substantial number of
free-form RPG programs already in production. The problem is that there are
a couple of our developers (one of them a recent hire who formerly worked
for JDE in Denver) that appear to be very resistant to change, and it seems
to me that they attempting to make a rule that all /new/ code should be done
in RPG/400.


- sjl


Vern wrote:
LOL!!

All good reasons and some probably truths.
But I don't recommend telling this person the negative
qualities she possesses, as in numbers 1 and 2!!!

Depending on the release, RPG IV has much simpler code
possibilities for handling dates - the date functions added
at V5R2 are just a delight. And you can do stuff in one line
of code that used to take 3 to 6 lines.

Other BIFs afford must simpler coding. And as the release level
rises, they get ever better and better. The %dec() function,
for example, eventually was able to convert from a
character string. Very cool!

I might suggest a 2-phase approach. Leave free-form for a bit later.
Be satisfied with the results of CVTRPGSRC
(or even better, Linoma's tool set). Introduce the new functionality
that makes life much easier. Finally, as all are coming around,
start looking at free-form across the board.
Especially with embedded SQL - a true delight,
compared to what I remember about RPG III.

Qualified data structures come to mind.
They give you a lot of flexibility for the right situation.

One of the main cases in favor of free form is that younger
developers will be more comfortable - that's probably NOT
a good argument in this case. Even if it IS true.

One of the main benefits of free-form might be the ability
to pretty-print your code - use indentation for contents
of IF-ENDIF blocks, etc. It will take time to demonstrate
that it IS nicer, because a veteran such as this person
is USED to the other way and feels quite at home there.

Of course, I suppose you haven't tried to bring in WDSC yet? :-)

----
I couldn't wait to see more than 27 lines of code on my screeen. And put them side by side, add your D-specs on one side, calcs on the other.

Two dimensional arrays, more code on one line.

Encapsulation, code re-use.

Using C functions, offloading database access, standardizing business rules by having just ONE place to put your pricing calculations, etcetera and on and on...