RE: An introduction to MI by example II (part B)...

[Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxx]

  >> MI is the "real native" language for the AS/400. It is like assembler on
other systems. There is the Old MI (for OPM) and the New MI (for ILE). 
Sometimes
you'll see MI referred to as TIMI

Not really - it was never the native language for anything. Just something the
old OPM compilers generate as an intermediate language. TIMI does stand for
Technology Independent Machine Interface but that is _not_ MI. As Hans Boldt
pointed out on Midrange-L the MI that you are programming in here is further
away from the system in some ways than programming in C. I don't want to
discourage people from using MI (well in some ways I do <grin>) but don't 
use it
thinking you're getting closer to the metal - you're not. You can just do 
things
that can't be done in RPG - unless of course you use the MI functions of the C
library. This has the added advantage of being a bound call whereas the 
calls to
MI programs are dynamic.


All new OS/400 function tends to be developed in C and C++ and not in PL/MI
(which itself is not MI) - IBM never (or hardly ever) wrote in MI. The current
IBM compilers generate W-code (a sort of itty bitty assembler) which is
transformed into MI-prime I think, for translation purposes. But MI-prime is
almost identical to W-code, which in turn is very close to the Risc instruction
set. That is why the C compiler and its built-ins can do a better job than MI
for the RISC boxes.

Does that make sense ?




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