Re: CRTRPGSLQI says "specs out of order"

["Simon Coulter" <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Buck,
You wrote:
>Then somebody decided that auto-report was rarely used, but the /COPY
>function was popular, so the /COPY function got included in the base RPG
>compiler.  But the first versions of that compiler didn't sort the specs
>into the right order.  Modern versions do.

Your statements are usually correct but this one is news to me.  When did
RPG compilers start sorting specs?  As far as I know they don't.  The only
thing that did was CRTRPTPGM.

Reeve's underlying problem is, I suspect, the P before the /COPY.  Why do
people do that?  The '/' indicates a compiler directive.  Compiler
directives do not have specs so why put P, or C, D, or anything else in
front of the slash?  Just because the RPG IV compiler tolerates characters
before the slash doesn't mean you should do it.  As we have previously
discovered the SQL precompilers are extremely literal in their parsing of
source code. It's only the stupid precompilers that require a spec for
/EXEC statements.

P.S. Has anyone else noticed that /free is an oxymoron?  Free-form
statements must be between column 8 and column 80, and columns 6 and 7 must
be blank.  That doesn't sound like free-form to me.  The compiler directive
should be /almost-free, or /not-quite-free, or /half-arsed-free, or
/free-within-limits, or /free-but-read-the-fine-print.

What's so special about column 6 and 7 in free form?

Regards,
Simon Coulter.
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