RE: api documentation was RE: SYSTEM prototype?

I really wasn't commenting on the quality of apis, only their documentation.
I haven't found much use for the CEE apis since a large part of what they do
exists in RPG, but they are easy to use in the sense that you can prototype
one and get it going in about 5 minutes because their documentation provides
the crucial information on parameter data types in different languages.

I agree that every api description doesn't need detailed how to instructions
or code samples, and have suggested that another manual might be the best
place for that sort of thing.  

They are only callable programs (more or less) not an intelligence test.  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Scott Klement [mailto:klemscot@klements.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 2:41 PM
> To: 'RPG400-L@midrange.com'
> Subject: Re: api documentation was RE: SYSTEM prototype?
> 
> 
> 
> <raises hand>  

/********  Big Snip   ************************************************/
> 
> 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.)    
> > 
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