RE: "extract" command enhancement(subfiles and BIFs)

Dan:

Don't give up on procedures.  Think of them as programs that do one thing
and accept parameters.  Once you get the definition and declaration
(prototype and interface) syntax down it's no big deal. 

I definitely agree with you and Booth about subfiles.  The whole display
file sewer is based on memorizing arbitrary arcane reserved words.   Seems
like a verb to do something like clear the subfile would make more sense
than setting on an indicator and writing to the control record, though.

How many people out there use more than ten or so display file keywords?
Of those, how many can use most of them without looking them up?
How many can use them in SEU rather than SDA?


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Bale [mailto:dbale@genfast.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 1999 8:23 AM
> To: rpg400-l@midrange.com
> Subject: RE: "extract" command enhancement
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Booth,
> 
> I'm starting to see the light!  I will confess that some of 
> the talk about new
> %bifs for everything under the sun kinda put me in a state of 
> euphoric stupor.
> For those of us who still have yet to "burn" our first 
> generic procedure, I
> think the idea of Toronto-created bifs has high appeal (as 
> opposed to those of
> you who have finished putting all your generic routines in 
> procedures and
> writing one now is like riding a bicycle.)  I guess I'm 
> looking for the Redbook
> that Jon Paris and company are trying to get to press.  The 
> current IBM
> documentation for using APIs and writing procedures, IMO, 
> stinks.  As others
> have mentioned on this list, what is needed are examples with 
> _working_,
> _documented_ code.
> 
> Your post, however, was the type of argument against the 
> current wave of %bif
> and other less meaningful enhancements that really struck 
> home and got me to
> think "out of the box" as far as enhancements to RPG IV is 
> concerned.  I am
> right with you on the topic of subfile programming.  I've 
> done hundreds of
> subfile apps over the course of my 15-year career, using 
> different types of
> subfiles and subfile techniques, and yet it seems like 
> subfile programming still
> requires a master's degree in the mystical arts.  I've got 
> several templates
> that I use (both the DDS and RPG skeleton source), and still 
> there is so much
> complexity involved in getting them to work properly.
> 
> To my mind, subfiles have so many silly-assed restrictions 
> (hmmm, starting to
> get off-topic...)  Well, let's just say that your idea for 
> simplifying subfile
> programming really hit home here.  I don't know that Toronto 
> would have the
> budget for simplifying such a complex piece of code and, what 
> with the supposed
> move away from green-screen (yeah, right, maybe in 20 
> years!), probably won't be
> where they want to spend their money.  But, hey, if nobody 
> mentions it...
> 
> - Dan Bale
> 
\> 
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