Re: Should I replace all CHAIN, SETLL, and READs to SQL

Sorry you don't like my use of terms but I have been on this machine since
1982 starting with System 38 and I have never seen anything but agony.
People reuse fields from something, use alpha fields as numeric, create
extension tables (the all time favorite) and extension tables to the
extension tables, and all to avoid adding a new field in a table. I have
seen so many absolute messes I can''t count them where people have done
things trying to get around changing a table.

As far as mixing SQL and RLA that just doesn't make sense to me. If I am
writing new code, I am using SQL unless there is something that absolutely
must be written in RLA and I found one example the other day for the first
time in 10 years.

And as I keep saying, the rest of the world uses SQL. Time for the AS/400
to move on. Learning SQL is one of the single most important skills that
any programmers needs in the modern world.


On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 2:27 PM, Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Alan Campin
Every AS/400 shop. Absolute agony about making a change to a table.

You might gain more traction if you were not so predisposed to absolutes
and hyperbole. In the SQL vs. RLA debate there are no real absolutes either
way. Both have appropriate use cases. You're raising artificial barriers
against RLA by ridiculing it and urging all DB I/O to be handled by SQL
alone.

We use both SQL and RLA and don't agonize over changing table layouts.
We're pretty agile with respect to changes to table layouts. We use a
utility to scan RPG source members that would be affected by table layouts,
and optionally compile them automatically. There typically aren't a lot. We
encapsulate DB I/O appropriately. We use SQL in modules that generate
filtered lists and reports, so none of those source members are affected.
We don't recompile "the world".

-Nathan

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