re: What am I missing, or free-form data structures and the group data area.

Thanks for all the responses.

What I missed is that you can't do it w/ fixed format RPG, either. The
DEFINE opcode, w/ *DTAARA in factor 1, supports *LDA and *PDA as values,
but not *GDA. The only way to read the group data area in an RPG program is
through a call to the QWCRDTAA API, and the only way to update it is a
combination of CHGDTAARA and QCMDEXC. Curiously enough, the DEFINE opcode
can't be used in a sub-procedure, so it can only be used in a logic-cycle
program We've pretty much abandoned both fixed format and the logic cycle.
But I am still curious as to why RPG recognizes *LDA and *PDA, but not
*GDA. There must be a reason.

date: Tue, 8 Mar 2016 21:37:14 -0600
from: Chris Pando <chris.pando@xxxxxxxxx>
subject: What am I missing, or free-form data structures and the

group data area.

Unless I have missed something, I have found a deficiency in the free-form
data structure definition.

If I want to use the local data area, mapped to a data structure defined

by

an external (reference) file (e.g. LDA),
my declaration would look like:

Dcl-DS lda Ext DtaAra(*LDA) End-DS

No problem. But I can't do the same for the group data area (which our

menu

system uses).

Dcl-DS gda Ext DtaAra(*GDA) End-DS

generates an RNF3343, which says only *LDA and *PDA are valid.

Have I found something free-from can't do (makes it sort of hard to argue
free-form should be the standard), or am I missing something?

chris@xxxxxxxxx <chris@xxxxxxxxx>
www.brilligware.com <http://www.brilligware.com>