Re: Program Generation Level

[Hans Boldt <boldt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

"What is an acceptable RPG program generation level?"

Someone else already replied that the only acceptable GENLVL is the
default for the command.  I can only comment on RPG III and RPG IV:
RPG III allows a genlvl up to 99.  If your program contains sev 40 diags,
the chances that a program will be created at all are rather low.
Allowing sev 10 or 20 diags may be fine for some errors, but you may
get odd behaviour with others.  I strongly recommend staying with the
default genlvl in RPG III programs.

In ILE RPG IV, we changed the meanings of the severities a bit.   We
realized that the difference between sev 10 and 20 of RPG III was subtle
at best, so any error that got a sev 10 diag in RPG III now gets a sev 20
diag in RPG IV.  Sev 10 in ILE RPG is used for warning messages.
These are things which work fine, but may be bad programming style.
(We don't have many sev 10 diags, but we've always wanted to add
more!)  We also restrict the maximum genlvl to 20.  We no longer allow
program generation when statements are dropped due to error.  Also,
we are a bit more confident that for sev 20 diags, the appropriate error
recovery is coded correctly.  However, I'd still recommend against
changing the default genlvl when compiling RPG IV modules.  By
allowing program creation for certain errors, you are allowing other
unwanted errors to get through as well.  Do you really expect to check
the compile listing on every successful compile?

(BTW, if you want, it is perfectly safe to change the severity of messages
RNF0262 and RNF0263 in ILE RPG IV.  These diags tell you that an
entry is not left- or right-adjusted properly.)

Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com
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