RE: LEFT Error (Or PICNIC Error...) REFORMATTED

> From: Larry Bolhuis
>
>   OK Pound on me all you want, I'm used to it.

Sorry to sound like I'm pounding on you, but frankly to me it sounds
like you might be translating your lack of familiarity of PC-based tools
to deficiencies in WDSC.  WDSC acts just like every other PC-based IDE
out there.  The things you're complaining about are the same in Visual
Studio and JBuilder and Visual Age for Java and so on.


>     And I use % as in %substr and %len but when the super duper
> integrated RSE editor doesn't know that there is no LEFT either I
tried
> it.

I don't understand this.  There is a LEFT function in REXX, which RSE
supports, so when you searched LEFT in the Help, it brought you to the
help text for REXX's LEFT function.  The problem is that there is no
LEFT function in RPG, and you assumed there was one.  Although I guess a
note somewhere on each page identifying the chapter you were in might
help.  Although with IBM documentation, you're still not guaranteed that
it will help <smile>.

Just for a pointer: if you decide to mess around with EGL, be prepared
for a shock.  The EGL documentation constantly refers to z/OS.  Thanks a
lot, guys! :)


> >Why would you assume that something you happened to look up in the
help
> >would apply to RPG?
> >
>     Because I was in an RPG source member when I pressed F1.  It'a all
> about the context.  Check out every politician who ever held an office
> and they will tell you their opponent tooke some statement out of
> context which (usually) twisted the meaning around 180 degrees.  Go
> google RPG. Now google iSeries RPG. Totally and completely different
> context with totally and completely different resutls.

Sorry, I must be slow.  I don't understand what this means, either.


> >  Far better to use the standard context-assist key
> >combination of Ctrl-space.
> >
>     Never heard of it. So I just tried it.  Got me a list of options
> such as *AND and *NOT and *HIVAL and *LOVAL etc etc. Pretty, um,
> useful?...  Oh and that was SOO intuitive. Why I didn't think to hit
> ctrl-space, I'm just not sure.

If you hit % (the prefix of all built-in functions) and hit Ctrl-space,
you will get a list of all built-in functions.  It's actually pretty
useful, and the Ctrl-space key combination is standard if you've used a
PC-based IDE before.  WDSC is, for better or worse, a PC-based IDE.  I
suggest you take the Eclipse tutorials.  They'll give you a lot of good
insight into how Eclipse (and thus WDSC) works.


>     Once again I was editing RPG so I would expect (in error
apprently)
> that the help system would know that.

Hit "Help" in Word.  Or Excel.  Or any other Windows program.  You get
the help for the entire tool.


>     Better off by who's definition? Ctrl-alt-Shift-Del-backspace
didn't
> help either. What other combos should I try?

Ctrl-space is the Windows standard content-assist key for just about
every Windows editor out there.  And I'm going to avoid the temptation
to tell you to use Ctrl-Alt-Del <grin>.
 

> >I don't much understand this.  Since I don't know what @IFC contains
and
> >I don't know what IPAddress contains, it's hard to know what this
does.
> >But in your original issue, eval IPT2 = %subst(IPT1:1:LN) would have
> >worked just fine.
> >
> >
> >
>     Just different variable names. In the original LN was already
> evaluated to %LEN(%TRIMR(@IFC)) to simplify debugging had it ever
> compiled.

My point was just that I don't understand how IPAddress and @IFC are
related.  Why can you take the length of the trimmed value of @IFC and
use it to extract data from IPAddress.  Those two variables must somehow
have an implicit relationship.  Since I can't assume anything like that,
the code doesn't make complete sense to me.

Joe