Re: COBOL ILE primer

Jon,

<grin>If you keep answering COBOL questions, people will start to get the
idea you still think it's a good choice<wink></grin>.

I wish you had time to elaborate on the "most efficient techniques" for
string handling. I know it has a variety of options available. I used to
prefer it far and above over RPG for string handling, but that was eons
ago. RPG has definitely evolved and now has techniques I wish were
available in COBOL.

Our shop using a variety of techniques:
--Moving strings to an array (err, make that a table) and manipulating
them there--I'll bet that's not near the top of your choices.
--STRING, UNSTRING, and INSPECT statements--These can be quite cumbersome
to code with any hope of efficiency.
--Reference modification--I don't know how efficient this technique is,
but it's very handy at times.
--Calling a handful of APIs and using translation tables--Again, these can
be cumbersome to code and I have no idea about their efficiency.

Thanks again for pitching in and helping out folks from your the days gone
by of your involvement in COBOL.

Michael Quigley
Computer Services
The Way International
www.TheWay.org

----- Message from Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on Wed, 3
Oct 2012 16:30:00 -0400 -----

To:

COBOL Programming on the iSeries/AS400 <cobol400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Subject:

Re: [COBOL400-L] COBOL ILE primer

Both OPM and ILE use the same technique to resolve the program
pointer on dynamic calls. You are correct in that ILE was designed
to speed up calls - and it does. I'm just trying to point out that
unless there is a very high call volume you may not see an enormous
benefit. I see that you are saying "Zillions" of calls so you should
see a difference.

But my other point was that COBOL is really not that good at string
handling (and most COBOL programmers don't even use the most
efficient techniques) and therefore it might be productive to look
at the other techniques being used.

So to go back to your original request - all you need to know to
produce a bound COBOL program is:

1) Change the CALL "PGMB" in PGMA to be CALL LINKAGE PROCEDURE "PGMB"
2) CRTCBLMOD of PGMA and PGMB
3) CRTPGM giving it whatever name you wish (Say PGMAB) and
specifying the PMGA and PGMB modules. Use any named AG you wish -
most use QILE.
4) CALL PGMAB in the normal way.

That's it. All the other normal considerations don't apply in your

context.