RE: CL pgm and pointer variables

["Steve Richter" <srichter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-admin@midrange.com [mailto:rpg400-l-admin@midrange.com]On
Behalf Of Joel Fritz
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 12:13 PM
To: 'rpg400-l@midrange.com'
Subject: RE: CL pgm and pointer variables

>IMHO, there is very little need for pointers in business application
>programming in RPG.  There are some situations where dynamic memory
>allocation makes sense, and you may need them for some API calls.  Mind
you,
>I'm willing to sacrifice some performance for maintainability.  I think
>they're nice to have, but should be used when they're the only reasonable
>option for solving a problem.

the indirect benefit from pointers, data pointers, macros and other best
used only by a trained professional features is that they enable function
libraries to be built better.  The C++ STL is a example of what I mean by
this. The STL uses features of C++ that make for very obscure code below the
implementation level of the STL, but it is easy, at least theoretically
easy, for the programmer to use the STL functions.

Steve Richter