RE: No syntax checking in free-form RPG

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Jon Paris
>
>  >> The explanation given is that free-form is too hard to parse.
>
> Where did you get this "explanation" Joe?

>From Hans, in response to a query on MCPressOnline:

"How do you get syntax checking to work in SEU when using free form RPG?"

Hans Boldt - 12:16pm JUL 25, 2003:

"Short answer: It doesn't.

Why not? The problem is that if the syntax checker were asked to check a
line in a free-form calc, it would have to scan backwards through the source
to find the beginning of the statement. Because of the continuation rules
for free-form statements, the rules for end-of-line comments, and the rules
for continuing literals, the only way to properly find the beginning of the
statement would be to scan back all the way to the beginning of the /FREE
block and then scan forwards. The delay in this operation might well be
quite noticable if the current /FREE block was big.

On the other hand, since you don't have to worry about coding things in
particular columns, and since there's not much syntax checking for
expressions anyways, syntax checking for free-form statements probably
wouldn't give you much benefit anyways, even if we could come up with a way
to quickly identify the beginning of the statement.

Cheers! Hans"


> It strikes me as a (hopefully) temporary aberration caused by a
> resource shortage.

That's not how I read the statement above.  Unless I'm mistaken, Hans is
pretty clear that the syntax is too complex to allow parsing, and besides,
we don't need syntax checking anyway.

Joe