RE: Shorthand Syntax (was XFoot with Qualified DS's)

["Bartell, Aaron L. (TC)" <ALBartell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Another point is now that RPG is speeding up its features, switching from
language to language isn't such a pain in the butt.  I have been writing a
lot of PHP code lately and it has the += feature and I absolutely love it.
And now that I have a V5R2 machine I can do it in when I code RPG also.

Especially with the 80 column source file limitation, something like this
comes in very handy and can clean up code considerably.  I recommend that
you give it a fair chance and then make an opinion because sometimes as RPG
programmers we dismiss anything that can be considered "like Java" or "like
C" or "like .NET".    

Aaron Bartell

-----Original Message-----
From: Hans Boldt [mailto:boldt@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 12:18 PM
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Shorthand Syntax (was XFoot with Qualified DS's)


Michael Naughton wrote:

> Call me a dinosaur (and you probably will :-), and I certainly don't mean
> to rain on anyone's parade, but IMHO these are syntaxes which I will
> probably never use.
> 
> On the one hand, we're all grateful for the RPG enhancements that allow us
> to enter nice long variable names, and we're happy that we can now mix
> upper and lower case and give the shift key a workout, but somehow we
> can't abide the notion of having to type:
> 
> a = a + b
> 
> and instead are begging to be able to limit ourselves to
> 
> a += b
> 
> Personally, I don't see the point (won't be the first time ;-).
> 
> JMHO
> 

If RPG operands were limited to 6 character variable names, then there's 
not much need for such a shorthand.

But this is the 21st century. And while RPG may be rather late, the 
language finally has fully qualified names. And so a statement like the 
following is not out of the question:

      cust(cid).division(did).balance(acctno) += payment;

The short-form assignment operator becomes a very useful tool in such 
cases, and may well be clearer (and in fact more correct) than:

      cust(cid).division(did).balance(acctno) =
              cust(cid).division(bid).balance(acctno)
                           + payment;

But as always, YMMV.

Cheers! Hans


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