Re: api documentation was RE: SYSTEM prototype? -- RPG400-L


<raises hand>  In most cases the API documentation is EXACTLY what
I'm looking for.   If more information was given, I'd go crazy --
I need a book that gets right down to the bare essentials.

If you're looking for a tutorial-style book on the subject, this should
be a completely different book.   Perhaps it'd be a useful project for
some of the people on this list to create a web page that acted as a 
tutorial of APIs from RPG IV.

Actually, the CEExxx APIs are the worst APIs in my opinion.  They're
awkward and difficult to use.   The only nice thing about them is that
you don't have to specifically bind them in -- which isn't a huge
advantage.

The UNIX-type APIs and the C-runtime functions are difficult in RPG
because you're using them for a purpose that they weren't designed for.
They were designed for C programmers to call from a C program.  The C
runtime conforms to ANSI C.   The UNIX-type APIs are for compatability
with what you can do in C on UNIX platforms.  The whole idea is to make it
easy for UNIX people to migrate to the AS/400.

The fact that I (and other people on this list) have found ways to call
and use them from RPG programs should be viewed as a "bonus."  It is a
side-effect of the way ILE works -- which shows what a great design 
ILE really is.



On Wed, 31 Jan 2001, Joel Fritz wrote:

> I've followed this thread quietly, and while people who've responded have
> answered the particular question about system() and the more general
> question about the location of api documentation, it seems to me that the
> word "easily" is the key.  Raise your hand if you think the api
> documentation is easy to find and provides much information on how to use
> the apis in RPG. <g> (CEE apis excepted.)    
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jon.Paris@hal.it [mailto:Jon.Paris@hal.it]
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 5:09 AM
> > To: RPG400-L@midrange.com
> > Subject: RE: SYSTEM prototype?
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >  >> Is there a place where one can "Easily" find what the 
> > valid values are
> > for the return codes from API's
> > 
> > As somebody else has pointed out, for APIs these are in the reference
> > manuals.  Not sure if there is a consolidated summary, I have 
> > never seen it
> > and I doubt it exists.
> > 
> > This particular one is a C function and is documented in the 
> > C/C++ library
> > functions manual.  I don't think the reply value has any 
> > significance other
> > than non-zero means error.  The actual error is determined though the
> > _EXCP_MSGID.
> > 
> > 

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