Re: free form alternatives?

["Mike Naughton" <mnaughton@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I remember years ago hearing from an IBMer that all  RPG programs should
be coded in-line (no EXSRs), to reduce page faults during execution (thus
saving I/O and time). I haven't heard it recently, though, and ILE -- with
its modular construction -- seems to be aggressively moving in the
opposite direction. The obvious reason is that ILE programs are supposed
to be easier to understand, maintain, and debug -- all of which saves
(expensive) programmer time, while arguably using (much cheaper) machine
resources.

IMHO, the reality is that bigger and faster machines are making "wasted"
cycles less and less of an issue. Sure, there will always be applications
where this is a factor, but increasingly most applications don't care. Is
this a bad thing? I suppose it depends on which resource you want to
conserve more -- machine or human. Unless there is a clear justitication
to the contrary, my vote is to make programs easy to build, maintain, and
enhance, and if that means wasting a few machine resources so be it.

JMHO,

rpg400-l@midrange.com writes:
>>> No, I am not really worried about the difference in cost between MOVE
>and
>%editc.
>Well, of course i wasn't talking about compile time, which should be
>performed
>just one time (or several, depending on error you find, but always an
>irrilevant
>nuber of time comparing to execute times) but about resource (es. CPU
>time)
>during execution of program. If you need to execute the %editc()
>statement some
>hundred of thousand times in you app, you may end with a longer executing
>program, which will end with you user wait for the app end.
>
>Of course, by your previous statement, you seem to 'suggest' to write bad
>code
>(i.e. not try to optimize code) and, if you AS won't execute it fast,
>well, just
>buy a bigger one....



Mike Naughton
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Judd Wire, Inc.
124 Turnpike Road
Turners Falls, MA  01376
413-863-4357 x444
mnaughton@juddwire.com