RE: Debugging & file I/O BIF's like %EOF, %FOUND

[coulthar@xxxxxxxxxx]

Phil, the key to understanding this is to think of BIFs as nothing more
than IBM-supplied sub-procedures, which
indeed they are. They are simply IBM-supplied functions which the RPG
runtime executes as it encounters them.
Asking the debugger to show their return value is the same as asking it to
show the return value of your own
sub-procedures. It would have to actually execute them to do that, passing
in the same parameters you coded,
if applicable. It would be the same as asking it to show the value of a
system API, or a C library routine, or a
JDK-supplied method in Java. Not impossible, perhaps, but typically it is
left to entry fields that let you type in
any expression and see the result.

>What I still don't understand is how the program does know the value of a
>BIF but the debugger can't know the value of a BIF.  Sounds like you're
>saying it could but the compiler and debugger aren't designed to.

Phil Coulthard, iSeries AD Software Architect,  IBM Canada Ltd.