RE: %EOF, %FOUND and the infamous Dow loop

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Douglas Handy
>
> All you need to do is look at your debugging a little different, and
> use single-step
> mode and/or the INFDS to determine the success of an I/O operation.
>
> What is so hard about that?

As I said in my previous post, single-stepping is not always effective and
adding an INFDS to every program is outrageous.  Besides that, I don't think
I should have to change how I develop code in order to handle merely
syntactical changes, which is all the BIF is.  The BIF adds no real
additional function, it's simply a different way to code the same operation.
IBM wants me to use this same syntax, yet I have to change how I do things
in order to use it.

Since it's not really a serious problem TODAY, this tends towards the
"zealotry" category, so I'll stop here.  Part of the reason this is such a
sore point with me is because IBM are particularly guilty of this in their
Java implementation.  Implementation decisions have caused code that worked
flawlessly in one release to break simply by upgrading to the next release,
and have in some cases required some serious changes in order to work around
issues.  But if IBM continues with this trend of releases breaking existing
code, then there will be long term ramifications.