Re: Corresponding End's -- CODE400-L

I agree with Rob, Jon, Sam, Phil, and Booth.  I do not agree at all that
the indent function of CODE would be superflous for free-format.  The
"Convert all to C free-from" works great and is probably one of the biggest
stoppers in CODE/400 free-form keeping me from coding in free-form becaue
it doesn't do anything.  I can just bang out code in ILE RPG nonfree and
then look at the structure with the "Convert all to C free-form".  I
remember the days of COBOL and SEU trying to look at someone's spaghetti
code where they didn't do any indenting and the time making sure everything
looked pretty.  I think CODE/400 could even help that COBOL junk.  It
doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to search for if's, do's,
for's, etc in any source column for formatting the code.  The other
stoppers to free-form for me are just taking the time to get used to the
new free-form alternatives so I don't have all those end-free's but that is
not CODE/400 related.  What I think CODE/400 could help with in that
respect is having a switch you can select to say that I am coding in
nonfree-form so I can tab through the columns and not select C specs every
time.  In other words, a menu item that says, I am coding free-form, I am
coding nonfree-form.  And if it is not too much trouble, please add those
/free and /end-free's automatically.  What would be really cool and ideal
would be able to code nonfree statements in free source and then have an
option in CODE to convert all to free form on the fly (updates this time).
CODE didn't position that "if" statement in the right column after that?
Add your "endif" and select a menu option to convert all and see your code
indent automatically and the ugly end-free's disappear as well.  That would
be cool and powerful.  And of course, being able to view CL loops indented
so you can quickly and easily tell where in the world you are at without
having to save and run a program to help you.  I have seen software that
among other things (like making EXSR, CALL, loops, etc have different icons
and colors) color codes and highlights loops while you are entering source
in SEU on the fly.  It seems like CODE/400 could at least show the loop
structures.  I like CODE/400 but I think there are things that can be done
to make code easier to read.  After all, I think the goal should be to make
programmers productive.  Furthermore, I think there are modifications that
can be made in CODE/400 to help programmers find a new perspective on
coding (especially free-form) which could help IBM as a whole.

Thanks,
Craig Strong

I really like what Jon wrote.

** Jon wrote:
 >> The indent function of CODE would be superfluous in this case.

You must work with really nice well disciplined people!  One of the
problems
I find with any free-form language (and RPG is no exception) is that no two
people do it the same way.  And there are also those idiots who "forget" to
indent when/where they should.  In these cases the indented view gives you
a
standardized way of viewing the code.


Jon Paris
Partner400