RE: external *PRTF (was: RE: 'ILE RPG' or 'RPG IV' . What's the d iffe rence!!!)

Dan,

When you use O-specs, you still have a print file, probably QSYSPRT or
something similar.  You're just program-describing it.  The same thing can
be done with display files, in several different ways.  REAL programmers use
user-defined data streams and control everything directly - well, at least
one time in their careers. <grin>  Or there's the wimp way - define one
1919-character field in your display file, and program-describe the thing in
O and I specs.  It's not hard, just tedious.  Heck, at my first job we had a
program like that which actually handled the screen with the RPG cycle -
that was a dinosaur in 1986 when I saw it on the /38.  The program used
arrays to simulate a subfile, just like the S/34 program that it had been
derived from.

Dave Shaw
Spartan International, Inc.
Spartanburg, SC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bale, Dan [mailto:DBale@lear.com]
> 
> OK, I can see I'm going to take my lumps for this.
> 
> >I could just as easily ask why you don't describe your display files
> internally.
> As I asked before, _can_ you?  Since two of you have 
> mentioned this, I'm
> guessing it's possible, but I've never seen it before.  Can 
> you do subfiles?
> Display attributes?  Protecting fields?  Position cursor?  Or 
> any of the
> other features of external display files that are STANDARD 
> and otherwise
> REQUIRED of today's AS/400 shops?  I'm guessing not.  But I 
> would defer to
> your knowledge of this.
> 
> >Or your database files for that matter.
> Doesn't count.  Database files are used in more than one application.
> 
> >Now that I have Code Designer to do the print layout it is 
> even simpler ...
> And how many shops have this?  I've not seen nor heard of any 
> shops around
> here that use Code/400.  As mentioned previously, perhaps my 
> tainted view on
> external printer files might have taken a different turn if 
> IBM had made RLU
> more like RDA.
> 
> I've already ranted in a previous post about wanting to be in 
> a leading-edge
> AS/400 environment.  Maybe I need to move to California.  ;-)
> 
> - Dan Bale
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:       Jon.Paris@halinfo.it [SMTP:Jon.Paris@halinfo.it]
> > Sent:       Monday, April 10, 2000 10:16 PM
> > To: RPG400-L@midrange.com
> > Subject:    Re: external *PRTF (was: RE: 'ILE RPG' or 'RPG 
> IV' . What's
> > the diffe   rence!!!)
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >  >> Jon, please indicate why you think "it is just better 
> and safer to
> > describe
> > these things externally."
> > 
> > I could just as easily ask why you don't describe your display files
> > internally.
> > Or your database files for that matter.
> > 
> > RPG programs are way too big and lumpy anyway.  Printer 
> files allow me to
> > keep
> > the physical definition separate from the logical 
> definition.  That makes
> > it
> > simpler to customize the output to the users needs (that is 
> who we are
> > coding
> > for right?) without having to keep messing around in the 
> source.  Every
> > time I
> > touch the source there is a chance I will screw up 
> something else.  If I
> > need to
> > modify a print file to split one line into two I can often 
> do so with no
> > change
> > at all to the program.  I can move fields around, modify 
> spacing/skipping,
> > etc.
> > etc.
> > 
> > I have never understood why the same programmers who so 
> eagerly embraced
> > the
> > S/38's external database and display definitions were so 
> determined to
> > continue
> > doing their print programs the hard way.  When I first 
> discovered the S/38
> > I was
> > so delighted to get all that $#%@ out of my programs that I 
> wouldn't ever
> > want
> > to have to go back to doing it the old fashioned way.
> > 
> > Now that I have Code Designer to do the print layout it is 
> even simpler
> > 'cos I
> > can drag and drop, stretch fields, move groups of them, 
> etc.  I used to
> > use SDA
> > and hand convert the final product 'cos I couldn't stand 
> RLU and SDA was
> > what In
> > used for the job on the S/38 anyway!
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