Re: Right side comments

I agree strongly, Buck. I would create the IF and END statements first,
putting the right hand comment on them, and then insert the conditioned
statements between them.

In large programs where I had to go back in and put in other conditionals,
it helped to have the comments during debug because I could look at the
nesting level and the comment to check that the correct END was still being
applied to my IF.

Chris Rehm
javadisciple@earthlink.net
If you believe that the best technology wins the
marketplace, you haven't been paying attention.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Buck Calabro" <Buck.Calabro@commsoft.net>
To: <RPG400-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 7:15 AM
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


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