Re: LEFT Error (Or PICNIC Error...) REFORMATTED -- MIDRANGE-L

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.

You are correct. Since most of my coding is CL it's mostly done in SEU.In DOS I usually use Edlin... OK Not really, usually Notepad. In linux Ilike joe or pico. For the level of coding that I do the big powerfunctions of the IDEs don't usually help me much. Sure I like having theexploere type bar on the left and the multiple members open and cut andpaste and clickable errors on the bottom after a failed compile, allgood stuff, but I don't push the capability of these things hard at all.

   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>.

The point was if I'm editing a source member that is of type RPGLE theHelp system SHOULD ( now I know it doesn't) should limit it's context toRPGLE and possibly the eiditor itself. I figured by now RPG shouldhave a LEFT function. Jon and Susan and Clause and all their Canadianfirends and even that Irish guy keep telling me the language is gettingbetter so I keyed it in figuring the IDE would coplain if LEFT wasn't afunction. Biggest problem was I didn't put in the % sign so RPG took itas an array and then complained about the delimiter. Not understandingthe delimiter complaint I head off to the help to find ou there IS aLEFT function (for REXX as it turns out) and the syntax is to use acomma as I have done. And off I go spinning down the wrong path.

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! :)

Thanks for the warning. I think I'll avoid it.

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.

Same as above. I'm in RPG source members. I want help about RPG. When Iopen the manual for my Dodge RAM, because that book is in the context(glovebox) of my Dodge, it talkes about 4WD and towing and maximumloads. When I open the manual for my Prius, because that book is in thecontext of my Toyota, it gives stern warnings not to mess with the 300vbattery and talks about the magic motor that starts all by itself. Itdoesn't give me any towing our hauling capability at all, the Prius hasno towing function. At my house there is no combined manual for all thecars in my garage (thank goodness) but my Craftsman toolchest has toolsthat work on all three (hammer, vice grip, duct tape, WD40!)

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.

Likely if I get into significantly more RPG the tutorial sounds like agood idea. Unfortunatly I've been trained by someone that you find thesethings with right and left clicking of the mouse. Memorizing even morectrl and alt and shift key combinations isn't hight on my priority listat the moment!


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

Please PLEASE do not let Micosloth set the bar for help! It used to beyou could trip over that bar but I think it's below ground now.


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>.

Fortunatley I use few windows based editors. I learned Ctl-Alt-Del in1982. Took us a least a day to figure out how to reboot that machinewithout using the power switch. The problem with all these bizarre keycombos is that you can't label them, ya gotta learn 'em.

   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.

Yes, thaey ARE related in that @IFC is the IP Interface that I'minterested in while IPAddress is the current Interface being retrievedfrom a user space supplied by an API. Problem is the IPAddress is nullpadded by the API to 15 bytes while @IFC is space padded. So I want tocompare only the number of non-space characters in @IFC to the samenumber of characters of IPAddress. Technically this compare couldresult in a false positive (i.e. @IFC of '172.16.1.1 ' would matchIPAddress of '172.16.1.10nnnn' (where 'n' = null)) I still need toresolve that but at least I get some positive matches now!!

Joe