Re: Another one bites the dust

[Douglas Handy <dhandy1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe,

>How far back will this compile and run?

My SWAG is V5R2.

>it seems we should be able to at least compile back to
>previous releases.  Is this true?

No, and it never has been (with RPG).

>Or is
>the new stance that every new feature requires the latest version of the
>operating system to run?

That's the way it's always been.  Didn't we just have a thread about this
recently?  The only way that would be allowed is if the feature was also
released to the back level OS versions as part of a PTF.  While not
unprecedented, it is the *very* rare exception and not the norm.   A very
welcome exception was the PTFs to add *SrcStmt and *NoDebugIO options to the H
spec.

If it can't be recompiled on the target release, you can't move it to the target
release.  Period.  No amount of wishing is going to change that.  I had to code
to V3R2 features for years, but I still welcomed the progression of the language
and tried to stay current on the language changes.

>And you wonder why I was reluctant to move off of RPG III.

Sue do.  Even V3R2 lets you gain some *tremendous* advantages over RPG III,
including being able to write subprocedures (although names are limited to 10
characters in V3R2 and V3R6), expressions, prototyped calls, etc.

I for one have a hard time understanding reluctance to move off of RPG III.

Doug