Re: Can I call a program in RPGLE via SEPT

Hello Giuseppe,

You wrote:
>an RPGILE program can access SEPT with built-in SYSEPT. How can it then
>call a program (with parameters) using the pointer retrieved from SEPT ?

It can't.  I tried this about a year ago.  The problem, as I recall, was
that RPGLE supports only two kinds of pointers -- space pointers and
procedure pointers.  SEPT pointers are system pointers for which RPGLE does
not provide support.

While you can use space pointers to fake other kinds of pointers if you are
just passing them on, procedure pointers are a bit different.  The CALL
operation code expects a program name (either as a literal or a variable)
and the CALLP operation code expects a prototype name.  That prototype must
refer to a procedure name or a procedure pointer.

You could write a program to receive the SEPT pointer from RPG along with a
list of parameters and build an appropriate argument list and then call the
program via the supplied SEPT pointer but that's not what you were asking.

I suppose it would be possible to patch an RPGLE program to call via the
SEPT pointer by changing the code generated for a CALL but that seems an
awful lot of work for limited benefit.  It would be better to write this
function in C, which does support system pointers, and call the C function
from your RPGLE program.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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