Re: Right side comments -- RPG400-L

Egad man, thousands of lines between IF & END? Even in RPG III you can make subroutines as you go.

But I've found right-side comments are especially useful if one is using 132 column emulation.
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Booth Martin, 802-454-8315 x235
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Buck Calabro <Buck.Calabro@commsoft.net>
Sent by: owner-rpg400-l@midrange.com

07/25/01 10:15 AM
Please respond to RPG400-L

To: RPG400-L@midrange.com
cc:
Subject: Right side comments

Right side comments do have value if used judiciously. In the RPG III
world, I used to use right side comments in the C specs, but only for COMP,
IF/END, DO/END SELEC/WHEN/ENDSL etc. groups.

C DDD IFGT RPTDAY > RPTDAY
C SUB 1 YY
C ADD 365 DDD
C END > RPTDAY

I find that there is just too little room for a "real" comment, but much of
the RPG III code is so monolithic that there can be hundreds or even
thousands of lines between the IF and the corresponding END, so the right
side comments can help there. I believe that having a mnemonic rather than
a "how deep are we nested" number is more useful because sooner or later,
that code will get an extra IF or have one taken out, and then the comments
are out of whack with reality. Further, scanning on 0001 will turn up way
too many false hits, whereas "> RPTDAY" will only find my two places. It is
actually useful to add this sort of right side comment when going in to
legacy code for the first time.

In the RPG IV world, when I'm visiting code like that (many lines between IF
and END) I have a very strong tendency to make the interior code a
subroutine (with a nice long descriptive name) so that I can see the
decision point and the action on the same editor screen.

C DDD IFGT RPTDAY
C exsr decrJulianYear
C END

C decrJulianYearbegsr
C SUB 1 YY
C ADD 365 DDD
C endsr

Buck Calabro
Commsoft; Albany, NY
Visit the Midrange archives and FAQ at http://www.midrange.com
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