RE: Using reserved words as variable names WAS: CF-Spec - another call for opinions

The language grammar needs to clearly define where an opcode/command is used
vs some other value. RPG doesn't really have a grammar today. Also, the
current CALLP opcode does not require parens on proc calls. I wish it did
because it would make it easier to teach--people don't understand how they
can have a proc name and a variable with the same name. I don't know why we
can have it in the language myself.

Anyway,

C      CALLP       MyProc()

Is very acceptable to me. But then it would not be consistent with the F & D
specs Keywords. We have to remember that things need to be "RPG like" in
design. We are not C programmers. If we are, then use C it is already on the
AS/400. But even C doesn't require that stupid COLON: separator.

Bob Cozzi

http://www.RPGIV.com




> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-rpg400-l@midrange.com [mailto:owner-rpg400-l@midrange.com]On
> Behalf Of Buck Calabro
> Sent: Thursday, August 12, 1999 10:35 AM
> To: 'RPG400-L@midrange.com'
> Subject: Using reserved words as variable names WAS: CF-Spec - another
> call for opinions
>
>
> John,
> I completely agree with you and Colin that breaking a working
> program is not
> the best course of action that a compiler writer can take, but I
> think that
> the risk of doing that in RPG IV is a vanishingly small one.  Here are the
> opcodes added by release (I culled them by comparing the online
> manuals.  I
> may have missed one):
>
> V3R6:
> CALLB, CALLP, DOU, DOW, EVAL, EXTRCT, IF, WHEN
> V3R7, V4R1:
> ALLOC, DEALLOC, REALLOC
> V4R2, V4R3:
> *none
> V4R4:
> EVALR
>
> BASIC doesn't need LET X=1, why should RPG IV need EVAL X=1?
>
> If we could use the SQL convention to distinguish between a reserved word
> and a variable, I think that the impact would be very minimal, because we
> wouldn't have to rename our newly ambiguous fields, merely put
> quotes around
> them.  Editor "scan and replace" makes that fairly painless, and
> we wouldn't
> have to worry about trying to rename database fields, either.
>
> As far as *BLANK goes, I can't tell you the number of times I've
> coded a CL
> line like this: IF (&INPUT *EQ *BLANKS) DO(...)  and wondered why
> the darned
> thing didn't work right.  The 400 is already a multi-language box, and we
> already have one convention for dealing with reserved words (in SQL) - why
> not re-use that?
>
> Very humbly,
> Buck Calabro
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:       John P Carr
> > Sent:       Thursday, August 12, 1999 8:34 AM
> > To: RPG400-L
> > Subject:    RE: CF-Spec - another call for opinions
> >
> > Colin said;
> > >I beg to differ. Having to change source on an upgrade is a very big
> > >deal. Thats the sort of thing that prevents people from upgrading!
> >
> > I can see it now,  2-3 years after the CF's are in,   a person
> goes into
> > a source member, makes a one line change,  and the compile listing
> > tells her/him  that they have to change a half dozen variable names
> > because "now" they are keywords.
> >
> > "It used to work,   Now it don't ,   What the @#$%@ did they do? "
> >
> > One thing about *ON, *OFF, *ZERO, *BLANK    You never confused them
> > with your variable names.
> >
> > John Carr
> >
> >
> >
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