RE: Free Form RPG Opinions Wanted

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Douglas Handy
>
> Why should I have to consult a compile listing just to see what a
> MOVE operation
> is really doing?  Why *shouldn't* a move operation be easy to understand?

Why shouldn't SQL be easy to understand?  Why shouldn't it be easy to set a
timing chain on an '83 deuce and a quarter?  Why shouldn't it be easy to
sculpt?  Why won't the State of Illinios let me perform brain surgery?

Because they're hard things to do.  I'm not sure when the trend got to be
that the most important thing was making programmers' lives easier.  But
hey, I think we've beaten this poor horse into submission, don't you?  I
think we've pretty solidly divided into two camps:

1. Those that think MOVE should be killed off and that changing the language
is the way to do get programmers to move forward (no pun intended).

2. Those that think legacy applications are a crucial investment and that
they deserve as many new features as new code.

The other issues - indent/undent, semicolons and so on - are pretty much
personal taste and everybody has slightly different takes on them, and
they're all pretty much compatible.

So it boils down to this:

1. Should IBM enhance RPG IV with an extended factor 2 that supports FF
syntax?
2. Would a %MOVE BIF be a good thing?
3. Should IBM provide a clean RPG IV to RPG FF conversion?

Joe