RE: Missing from RPG/LE

[Joe Teff <jteff19@xxxxxxx>]

> BTW, here's what we expect to provide in the next
> release of ILE RPG (not V4R3, but some release after that):
>
> - new datatypes:
>   -- 1 byte integer and unsigned
>   -- 8 byte integer and unsigned
>   -- UCS2
> - EVALR - right adjusted string assignment
> - FOR - free format do loop
> - LEAVESR - leave subroutine
> - some enhancements to data structures
>   -- OVERLAY(FLD:*NEXT) - no explicit offset needed
>   -- implicit definition of subfields that have
>      an overlaying subfield
>   -- INZ(*EXTDFT) - initialize subfields of externally
>      described data structures to DDS DFT value
> - new built-in functions:
>   -- %DIV - integer division
>   -- %GRAPH - convert string to graphic type
>   -- %REM - integer remainder
>   -- %XFOOT - sum of array elements
>   -- %UCS2 - convert string to UCS2 type
> - some support for threads
> - character variables can be up to 65535 chars long


How might the %REM be used? For example I have the following lines of code
and I needed both the result and the remainder:

     C              Year                        Div       4                     
     Result
     C                                             MvR                          
       Remainder


I recently purchased "Java for RPG Programmers" (through the way David
suggested) and I looked for the section on threads. This concept reminds
me very much of my days writing EDL on the Series/1. Although it has been
some time since I used that (about 14 yrs ago), I vaguely remember using this
same technique then, though I believe the term used was task or sub-tasks.
Is it reasonable to think that we will eventually get that capability in RPG?
I have "faked" this technique in the past where I had a program with a large
load-time because of file opens, initializing loigic, etc. I would do as little 
as
possible to get te first screen up including using user open on most files,
issue a write for the screen, do the rest of the load-time and then issue a read
from the screen. On succeeding passes through the code, I would use EXFMT.
I could usually get the rest of the load-time completed before the user actually
hit the ENTER or an F-key. It made it look like I really speeded the program
up to the users. It would have been nice to execute the load-time logic with
a thread instead. I'm sure we could find many uses for this technique if it was
generally available for use in RPG.


Joe Teff
Information Technology Consultant
IBM Certified Specialist - AS/400 RPG Programmer
Quality Data Systems
Minneapolis, MN

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