RE: Initialization of static variables

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Haas, Matt
> 
> Why not just initialize the values in the C specs? It's for sure not
as
> pretty to look at but it gets the job done without using global
variables.

Hey Matt!

These are variables whose values remain constant between calls.  For
example, I might store a "last key value" in a data get routine.  If I
re-enter the procedure and the key to be retrieved is the same as the
last key, I can skip the get and use the cached data.  Other uses are
for automatic sequence numbers or level breaks.

In any event, a few of my programs were written so that these variables
needed to be initialized once at the beginning of the program and then
continue until the program ends. For example, I assigned sequence
numbers in one program.  It was way surprising to me to set on *INLR,
and then come back to find the sequence numbers still increasing with
each subsequent call to the program.  Very counter-intuitive for us RPG
dinosaurs.

Getting around this is done in either of two ways: a special call to the
procedure that initializes the variables (*NOPASS helps here) or by
moving the variables out to global storage.  But being able to set a
flag that says "reinitialize me in *init" would be a real handy
workaround.

Joe