RE: Free Form RPG Opinions Wanted

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Douglas Handy
>
> It really isn't that simple.  The fixed opcode column is restricted to 10
> characters.   CHAIN(X) would take 8 without any other extenders,
> but in the free
> format variety (which you may not be familiar with yet), CHAIN can already
> accept up to 5 other extenders.  Aside from N and E, the two you probably
> already know, IBM had to add H, M, and R to accomodate the fact
> you may be using
> expressions within the list.  See the V5R2 reference manual.
>
> CHAIN(XENHR) just doesn't fit in 10 characters.

CHAIN(X) was one technique.  A more appropriate syntax might be to put
*EXTFAC2 in factor 1.  But there's still the too many extenders issue.  I
can see that as a problem.  One you'd rarely run into, but a problem
nonetheless.  But not insurmountable, certainly - how often do you use more
than three extenders on a CHAIN operation?

Beside, this only occurs in the very rare circumstance that you're somehow
using an expression to identify your key data structure (perhaps in an
index?), and you need to override the precision rules.  Uh huh.  How often
does this happen in your code, Doug?

Beside (and keep this between you and me) but the idea of sticking precision
rules in the opcode never seemed like a very good idea.  I'd prefer BIFs:
%HALF(x), %PREC(x: {*DEFAULT}|*RESULT).  That way I have fine-grained
control over the entire statement.


> And you'd need to add a semi-colon to the end of the statement
> too.  While you
> may not agree with it, IBM *had* to either use an end of
> statement delimiter
> like the semi-colon, or a line continuation character.

Not true.  Just use the line continuation conventions already used in eval
statements.  Which is basically, if the next line doesn't have an opcode,
it's a continuation.


> Think about it.  The main reason to use the new CHAIN(X) syntax
> would be to use
> the (list) or %KDS() capabilities, and the chances of that
> fitting in solely the
> extended factor2 area without a line continuation are not
> exceedingly high.

          CHAIN    %KDS(myFileKeys) Myfile

That wouldn't fit?