Re: just curious - Number of Parms

[booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

On the other hand Gary if one makes a habit of externally defining data 
structures and the data structure contains most of the fields used as 
parms in an application's series of programs then defining various fields 
from program to program becomes a no-brainer.  This is a technique JP Carr 
showed me a few years ago and it is a real godsend of a solution.
_______________________
Booth Martin
Booth@MartinVT.com
http://www.MartinVT.com
_______________________




Gary Guthrie <GaryGuthrie@home.com>
Sent by: owner-rpg400-l@midrange.com
07/27/2000 10:56 PM
Please respond to RPG400-L

 
        To:     RPG400-L@midrange.com
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        Subject:        Re: just curious - Number of Parms

Ah, but there are excellent reasons to pass individual parameters. With
procedural RPG, you have parameter validation that occurs before
run-time (nice to avoid those failures). Additionally, use of a data
structure removes considerable flexibility. You can no longer take
advantage of those situations that allow you to do such things as pass
numeric parameters without worrying whether it is packed, zoned, ...

Of course, there are circumstances in which passing a data structure as
a parameter is indeed appropriate. However, I don't feel that using one
to avoid passing individual parameters qualifies as one of those
circumstances. 


Gary Guthrie
REAL Solutions Technical Support
NEWS/400 Technical Editor



jpcarr@TREDEGAR.COM wrote:
> 
> >Wouldn't it make sense to just send a data structure as single 
parameter.
> >Then you can externally define it with DDS.
> >Ken Slaugh  (707) 795-1512 x118
> 
> You got it Ken, I RARELY define individual parms.  I always pass a
> structure.
> 90% of the time I externally define it.  And now with the next release 
of
> RPGIV(?)
> we will be able to initialize D/S subfields with default values via the 
DDS
> DFT keyword.
> So even the default initialization is done via the Parameter template 
file
> external to the program.
> So no hard coding of INZ values..
> 
> If a field definition is changed,  You change the Field Reference, CHGPF 
on
> the Template file
> and recompile program.   You don't have to change source code nearly 
ever.
> 
> Just a thought
> 
> John Carr
> EdgeTech Inc
> 804-739-7689
> 
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