Re: Retrieving a Pointer to an Object

[Tim McCarthy <twmac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jon,
Try use any of the user space and listing API's in an RPG program without
adding offsets to pointers and tell me you have readable and maintainable
code! In a lot of cases especially with lists within lists you'll find this
next to impossible. It's true that most RPG and Cobol programmers have no
need for pointers but that's just because most of their programming tasks
relate to transaction/record based processing with fixed field/record
structures. There's been a lot of un-necessary code in these sort of
programs because programmers couldn't or didn't know how to use pointers
and based-on structures. How many times have you seen data moved in and out
of "work" fields so a subroutine could process common data formats? ILE
procedures and the ability to pass by reference help here but the
underlying concept is pointer based. Programmers may not need to understand
pointers to write RPG and Cobol applications but in a lot of cases they
could write better programs - and pick up 'C' quicker - if they did.

Tim
(P.S Anytime I say anything about RPG I always feel the wrath of the RPG
programmer coming down on me. Hey, I like RPG - used it for years :-) )
    

At 08:50 AM 6/26/98 -0400, you wrote:
>It's not a question of a simpler concept as such - if you understand pointers
>then ptr++ is fine (but don't expect it to work in RPG) - but most people
>_don't_ understand them.  Since you may not be maintaining the code you write
>that is significant.  I also find that manipulating the pointer by
reference to
>the data is more obvious than pointer math - but I know I'm in the minority
>there.  Languages like C/C++ force you to use pointers, but there are very
few
>cases in RPG or COBOL where a pointer is needed.  I'd just rather avoid
>pointers whenever possible - they are a constant source of errors.
>
>Jon Paris - AS/400 AD Market Support - paris@ca.ibm.com
>Phone: (416) 448-4019   -   Fax: (416) 448-4414
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