Re: Missing from RPG/LE

[Rob Berendt <rob@xxxxxxxxx>]

I think that you bring up some good points.  And there might be an argument 
that since ILE RPG allows
 you to create your own functions via procedures you should be able to do it 
yourself.  I find that mildly
 acceptable in the short term.  However I agree that the language should 
support these.  Hopefully the
Toronto lab picks up on these via the mailing list.  There is an official way 
to go through to request
enhancements however, (other than COMMON).  This process used to be called a 
PASR.  I think that
it is called a REQUEST DATA form, or a Request for Change, now.  They rotate 
the person in charge
of this on an extremely frequent basis.  The last person that I talked to that 
ran this was Lee Eastman
at 507-286-6784.  Perhaps you might call him.  I have submitted some changes 
this way and have
seen them come to fruition.




jteff19@idt.net on 09/25/98 12:08:00 AM
Please respond to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com@Internet
To:     midrange-l@midrange.com@Internet
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Subject:        Missing from RPG/LE

I appreciate how much more readable code is in RPG/LE than any other flavor of
the language. There is one area though that I think a much better job could have
been done. I think that having a %Range and %List BIFs would really help
cleanup coding.

  I would write:

     C                                  If              DateEntered >= 980101 
and
     C                                                  DateEntered <= 980131

  Instead I could write

     C                                  If              DateEntered = 
%Range(980101 980131)

  Or I would write:

     C                                 If              ItemStatus <> 'D' and 
ItemStatus <> 'O' and
     C                                                 ItemStatus <> 'P'

  Instead I could write:

    C                                  If               ItemStatus = Not 
%List('D' 'O' 'P')

   Or, even better:

    D Deleted                               C                              'X'
    D Obsoleted                           C                              'Q'
    D Prototype                            C                              'S'

    C                                  If              ItemStatus = Not 
%List(Deleted Obsoleted Prototype)

This code would become even more readable and thus more maintainable. In fact, 
many
of the BIFs available in SQL look like good possibilities.

I really do like what has been done to the language and find that writing in 
RPG3 (aka
RPG/400) is becoming as untasteful as writing in RPG2.

Joe Teff

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