Re: Replacing *entry plist

[Barbara Morris <bmorris@xxxxxxxxxx>]

"M. Lazarus" wrote:
> 
> Barbara,
> 
> At 3/24/03 06:35 PM, you wrote:
> >Mark, prototypes are meant to be used by both calling programs and the
> >program itself (so for EXTPGM, the prototype should be in a /copy
> >file).  The EXTPGM keyword is really more for the callers anyway, so I
> >think it should be hardcoded.  For the program itself, if the command's
> >PGM parameter and the EXTPGM parameter are different you just get a sev
> >10 message; the EXTPGM parm is ignored and the program gets created
> >exactly the same as if you had the EXTPGM correct.
> 
>   I've been thinking about this (and using /COPY in my programs) and have
> come to the conclusion that I'd still like to have the
> EXTPGM(*CURRENT).  Here's why.  I've found that the best compromise between
> flexibility and simplicity is coding like this:
> 
> D MyPgm PR              EXTPGM( 'MyRealPgm' )
>   /COPY MyRealPgm@
> 
> D MyPgm PI
>   /COPY MyRealPgm@
> 
>   where MyRealPgm@ contains the fields and parm attributes.  This keeps the
> fields in sync, but avoids having to define conditional compiler directives
> to make sure the specific lines (PR vs. PI) get included.  It also helps
> readability, IMHO, when trying to figure out definitively which procedure
> is being called.
> 
>   Having EXTPGM(*CURRENT) would document that this is really a replacement
> for *ENTRY PLIST.  Am I missing something major here?
> 

Mark, if 'MyRealPgm' isn't the name of your program, how will the
callers find it?  Maybe I'm missing something.

The presense of the PI should be documentation enough that this is the
entry parameters for whatever procedure it's coded in.  "*CURRENT" won't
help anyone who's scanning for "*ENTRY" to find the entry parms.

If you want to put your parms in a /copy file, do this for your
prototype copy file:

 D MyPgm PR              EXTPGM( 'MyRealPgm' )
  /COPY MyRealPgm@

and your main source has

 D MyPgm PI
  /COPY MyRealPgm@

If you frequently change the names of your programs, you could code the
names as named constants and copy the named constants file into all your
programs.

D EXT_MYREALPGM   C              'XY01S833'
D EXT_MYPGM2      C              'XY02S833'

 /COPY EXTPGMNAME
D MyPgm      PR          EXTPGM(EXT_MYREALPGM)