RE: Hans

["Steve Richter" <srichter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 2:46 PM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: RE: Hans

>Is this one of those "If it's not the one thing I currently think is
>critical, then it's a worthless enhancement" arguments, is it?

>Didn't the expression go "It's the squeaky wheel that gets discarded."?

>I am sure they are planning improvements to the language.  They have
>the last several release and I am sure they will continue to do so.

Hi Rob,

( you must be really thrilled about the running TV commentary while our
troops are fighting for their lives in Iraq! )

I just want the platform to be improved. Exception handling, namespaces, and
some sort of an object destructor facility* are needed for RPG to stay
competitive.

Steve

*Object destructor - when space has been allocated in a proc and an object
created ( data structure ), well written code will insure that that space is
freed properly when the proc ends.  You can use the scope message api in rpg
code to do this, but that is pretty tedious.  Something like the following
in RPG might work better:
 d pObject          s               *  Destructor( DestroyObjectProc )
 d Object           ds                 likeds( xxObject )
 d                                     based(pObject)

When the proc ends, either because of an exception or return, the proc named
"DestroyObjectProc" will be called with the pointer "pObject" as a
parameter.  This proc is user written and contains the code needed to
properly free the space that the pointer points to.