Re: What bugs you about KLISTs in RPG IV?

["Scott Klement" <infosys@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Carol,

No, I generally write my own software, rather than use a package.
At one time we used MAPICS, but we got rid of it quickly because
all of the options just confused people.

Our philosophy has always been to use our own custom software that
does EXACTLY what we want, and ONLY what we want.  This makes it
very easy to learn, and cuts mistakes down to a minimum.

It seems to me that if you're having that much trouble with keylists,
you'd just make them into a data structure for debugging.  Yes, it
may be a pain to do if you've got many source members to look through
but, once its done, its done -- and you can reap the benefits
afterwards.

If you run into this type of error frequently, you might also want
to consider changing the code to make it more clear to the user
whats happening!   Have it tell the user WHICH key in the keylist
isn't matching, and show the values...   makes things easier for
people in the long run.

Thats what I'd do, anyway...

I recognize that I'm not in the same position that you are in.

Scott Klement
Information Systems Manager
Klement's Sausage Co, Inc.


Carol Bastien <cabastien@home.com> wrote:
> Scott Klement wrote:
>
> > Theres a very simple solution to the whole "debug a whole keylist"
> > problem.   Just put all of your keys in a data structure somewhere
> > and debug THAT.
> >
> > Maybe I'm weird, but its only once in a blue moon that I need to
> > debug a keylist, and hitting F11 (or typing eval varname) for 2 or
> > different variables in a keylist doesn't bother me at all.  If it
>  did,
> > I'd make a data structure that contained all of my keys, just to
>  make
> > it easier to debug them.
> >
>
> Scott -   Have you ever had to support  users on a large software
>  package
> like J.D.Edwards,  CA/PRMS or the like.  One of the most common
>  questions
> you're ask is, 'Why dosen't something display on the screen or print
>  out on
> the report'.  That's when you open up the code on the  program, once
>  you've
> tracked the guilty one down, and you find out it's most definately a
>  miss on
> one of maybe 20 files all of which have compound keys . . . so after
>  you
> spend quite a bit of time figuring out what was in the parms require
>  to call
> the program you finally get the baby up in debug.  Now you're at the
>  fifth
> key list and "F11ening" (new technical term!) on the 6 key fields fo
>  that
> file . . . and you stop and think while chewing one recently abused
> fingernail:  I'm almost lost here, or am I?  Should I start over, or
>  try to
> keep going 'cause maybe I'll get lucky?  Was that first field in tha
>  last
> key list left justified, or was there a blank in front of the 1st
>  character?
> Yeh, maybe I should start over and first I'll just redefine all thes
>  keys in
> data structures so I can see them clearly . . . Oh but wait,  they'r
>  all in
> Copy statements so I'll have to recompile first so I see what they a
> suppose to be . . . That's when the phone rings and it's the
>  controller who's
> waiting anxiously for the answer to the mystery.
>     It's times like that when I'm wishing I could just F11 on the ke
>  list
> and see answers instead of the "That does not compute" message.
>  Trouble is,
> the more flexibility the software vendors build into their packages,
>  the
> worse this situation gets.
>     Anyway, that's why I want, need, require . . . dare I say demand
>  the F11
> "Show me the keys", and why they just MUST put back the ability for
>  (not
> just the computer) to Watch a selected set of variables.   That's wh
>  I'm in
> debug after all.
>     Most sincerely - Carol
>
>
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