Re: Free Form RPG Opinions Wanted

[Douglas Handy <dhandy1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe,

>Not only that, you continue to resist a %MOVE BIF that would remove 90% of
>the difficulties associated with moving from fixed to free-form.  Why?
>Because it's not elegant enough for you.  

I don't think that is it all.  It is because MOVE is really a very error prone
opcode.  RPG has so many nuances to the rules of MOVE, that it is not inherently
obvious when a programmer is intentionally using one of its "features".

I view the *abscence* of MOVE in free-format as a GOOD thing.  I've been coding
RPG since 1979, and think I understand the nuances of MOVE pretty well.  But I
also realize that most new programmers DON'T understand them.

I think IBM is just trying to deprecate MOVE when used for new development, and
that to me is a good thing.

With an intelligent converter of fixed to free form, it could analyze the field
types and lengths and replace all "normal" uses of MOVE with the proper eval
constructs.  This would cover the vast majority of MOVEs.  And make the rest
stick out like the sore thumb they are.

Doug