Re: Please vote for Syntax check in /FREE!

[Hans Boldt <boldt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob cozzi wrote:

> Hans,
> Hans,
> I can?
> What is the comma used for in RPG IV? 
> Nothing in RPG IV that I can think of, it does not exist, does it?
> Am I having a brain fart? I can code the statement you specified, but it
> won't compile.
>
>    Callp   myProc(12,17);
> Huh? Explain, please?

Hi Bob! Well, I for one know for a fact we've discussed this before. 
It may have been quite a while ago, but we have. I also remember 
quite clearly the internal discussions that led to the decision to 
make the colon the parameter separator. So it would appear that I 
have to bring up that story again.

First, what does "CALLP MYPROC(12,17);" mean? It means you're 
passing one (1) numeric parameter with four digits and two decimal 
places. That decimal notation is something that Europeans are quite 
familiar with, and European programmers were also quite familiar 
with coding decimal literals with comma decimal separator in RPG III 
programs (with a particular option on the H-Spec).

Now as you know, the RPG planner at the time was born in Europe, and 
he felt that allowing the comma as a decimal separator in RPG IV 
numeric literals was a good idea. Practically all other compiler 
developers on the team thought the idea stank. I even brought in a 
pile of cash register receipts saved from various trips to Europe 
which showed that, although the comma is preferred, Europeans still 
could handle a period as decimal separator. (Half the receipts used 
comma, half period.) If European consumers could recognize the 
period as decimal separator, I argued, then surely European 
programmers could too. (Regardless of decimal notation within RPG 
programs, there would always be the choice of comma as decimal 
separator in edited numbers in the output of RPG programs.)

Anyways, as you can see, his opinion won out. Which then meant we 
needed to choose another character as parameter separator. The colon 
was deemed the least objectionable of the alternatives.

End of story.

Cheers! Hans