RE: Adoption of new RPG techniques -- RPG400-L

>What does /free add that gets RPG into "this centuries programming
model(s)"?
Joe, to you probably nothing.  You are different.  To me, it is huge.  RPG
was the only language I learned in college that had a fixed format syntax
and thus took me longer to learn because it was so ugly.  Now, RPG with
/Free format; that is a huge revolution for RPG.  It brings it up to the bar
with what other languages have had for decades.  Have you done a lot of sub
procedures, CGI, or XML programming in RPG?  If you do that in fixed format
your code looks _a lot_ uglier.

<Joe>
/free adds almost nothing.  It allows you to indent your code and lose
the "eval", at the price of having to add semicolons and losing syntax
checking (and of course, the whole issue of MOVE and, as Jon has pointed
out, the differences in the various mathematical opcodes).  The only
real additions seem to be a couple of extra BIFs - BIFs that could be
added to the fixed syntax with almost zero additional effort.
</Joe>

I know I initially complained about the semicolons, but that is a very small
price to pay for what we get with free format.  <sarcasm>Why does a man who
has "developed more and better business systems than you ever will" (you
being Aaron Bartell) have to have a syntax checker? </sarcasm>


<Joe>
So, to try to force the majority of people to move to /free for what is
in effect no real value add is not progress.  It's change for change's
sake, in my opinion.
</Joe>

It is not just /Free that concerns me, it is the process of the lowest
common denominator that bugs me.  They are just slowing down the language.
Just look at all the outsourcing to other machines we have had to do because
RPG hasn't been up with the times.

Aaron Bartell

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Pluta [mailto:joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 2:00 PM
To: 'RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries'
Subject: RE: Adoption of new RPG techniques


> From: Bartell, Aaron L. (TC)
> 
> Lowest common denominator stuff clouds progress, IMO.  If a company
wants
> to stick with RPGIII or fixed format for the rest of their lives let
them,
> but don't let that hold back the companies that need RPG to get into
this
> centuries programming model(s).

How is fixed format holding back programming?  RPG IV added real
functionality, from procedures to ILE interoperability to a whole slew
of BIFs.  Those were real enhancements.  What does /free add that gets
RPG into "this centuries programming model(s)"?

/free adds almost nothing.  It allows you to indent your code and lose
the "eval", at the price of having to add semicolons and losing syntax
checking (and of course, the whole issue of MOVE and, as Jon has pointed
out, the differences in the various mathematical opcodes).  The only
real additions seem to be a couple of extra BIFs - BIFs that could be
added to the fixed syntax with almost zero additional effort.

So, to try to force the majority of people to move to /free for what is
in effect no real value add is not progress.  It's change for change's
sake, in my opinion.

Joe

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