Adding pointers to RPG language.

["Jon Paris" <Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 >> Are pointers necessary for performing a binary search? No, not really.
Not even if you use the C run-time function bsearch, if you code it
properly.

I can't see how - unless you code a separate prototype each time you use it,
which kind of goes against the point of protos.  It expects a pointer and I
can only give it that by specifying a field by reference (in which case at
least the basic array type has to match) or a pointer.  Am I missing
something?

Of course if I didn't understand pointers, I wouldn't know how to code it
"properly" anyway <vbg>

 >> The new built-in function %LOOKUP uses a binary search algorithm when
used with ordered arrays.

Agreed, but unless you are also implementing arrays with a variable numbers
of entries _and_ no practical maximum on the number of elements _and_ the
ability to search not just arrays but MODS as well then I would still have a
problem.  Most of the recent situations that we have been involved in
required one or more of these characteristics.


As to your comments on not using pointers in a high-level language - I
basically agree with you - providing the language offers all the facilities
that I need for application programming.  RPG IV still doesn't.
Admittedly, now that I get the C compiler as part of the development tools,
I am more likely to use "the right tool for the job" - but on earlier
releases it wasn't practical to pay big bucks for a compiler that you needed
three times a year.

Jon Paris
Partner400