RE: Adding pointers to RPG language.

[Scott Mildenberger <Smildenber@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Answers inline.

Scott Mildenberger

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Simon Coulter [mailto:shc@flybynight.com.au]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 1:34 AM
> To: rpg400-l@midrange.com
> Subject: Re: Adding pointers to RPG language.
>
>
>
> It is much quicker to scan main storage than DASD and a based array is
> faster than any sort of messing with SETOBJACC.  Who among
> you uses based
> arrays, dynamic storage, qsort() and bsearch()?  They certainly don't
> feature in all my programs but sometimes they are a godsend and we
> couldn't do it without pointers.


I have used these in a couple of places and it works really great.  I have
implemented some 'list' procedures in a service program so the programs
themselves don't need to know how it is all implemented.  They especially
work well for dynamically resorting a block of data.  By creating the
service program other programmers who have no clue how to do this can also
use the functionality.


>
>  Who among
> you have implemented callbacks for some of your procedures?
> Who among you
> have written the callbacks required by qsort() and bsearch()?


I have for a couple of applications.


>
> Much of this falls into the serious pointyhead programmer arena but it
> would be interesting to know how many of us:
>
>       a) Understand and use this stuff when required
>       b) Have heard of it and would like to try it out
>       c) Have heard of it and wouldn't go anywhere near it
>       d) Have no idea what I'm talking about :)
>

Answer a).