RE: What bugs you about KLISTs in RPG IV? -- RPG400-L

Hans,

Yes, I would take advantage of this if it were available. 
CHAIN support would be nice, but why restrict this to I/O?  
Doesn't it add a lot more flexibility if we could create our own 
CHAIN that had this functionality?  It is not possible to do this 
without some mechanism that supports varying format 
procedure parameters.

My imagination may be overly enhanced by the rarified air 
here, but I would like to see the file be variable also.  If you 
supported this it would allow us to de-coupling server type 
procedures from applications.  I would also like to be able to 
create a COPYKEY or a DLTKEY or a GETDTAQ.  Until RPGIV 
supports typing of parameters I will need to do this myself 
which adds quite a bit of unnecessary work.

David Morris

>>> <boldt@ca.ibm.com> 06/15/99 07:50AM >>>


Thanks for your input on this issue!

Here's a bit more background:  We understand fully why people
want to be able to define KLISTs in D-Specs.   However, while
a KLIST does define a klist name, the key fields are somewhat
awkward on the D-Spec.  For example, although you can  define
fields on the KFLD opcode, you can also  code indexed arrays,
which are not allowed today in positions 7-21 of the D-Spec.

Someone raised the idea of a "KLIST Data Structure".  That is
an interesting idea which I'll pursue further.   But, I don't
think it would be able  to fully replace the functionality of
of the KLIST.

One person came close to another idea that we've been playing
with here in the lab.  As you know, there are rumors floating
around about a new free-format calc spec.  Let's assume for a
moment  that these rumors are true.  This would give new ways
to enhance old opcodes.  The main thing  that has bothered me
about KLISTs is that they are necessary at all! If we weren't
limited to 14 chars in Factor 1, we would be able to list the
keys directly in the CHAIN opcode.  Imagine for a moment:

     cf   chain (custno: acctno: date) mastfile

or even:

     cf  chain (prodno: 'X' + subcode(n+14)) mastfile

In other words, full expressions coded directly as key fields
for the keyed I/O operations!

So todays questions are:  Would you take advantage of this if
available?  Would you still use KLISTs?

Cheers!  Hans

Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com 


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