Re: *INZSR - I still love you!!!

[Douglas Handy <dhandy1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hans,

>But in RPG ... you could just as easily do without 
>the *INZSR. Just perform your initializations when you start your 
>procedure or program, and you're set.

However, you must remember that when *INZSR was added, it was still very common
indeed to code cycle based programs.  In those, there *is* no execution of the
mainline when the input files are empty, and thus you can't call EXSR except
from the LR calcs (which is what I did in RPG II when the init subroutine had
not been executed during detail calcs).

The *INZSR ran consistently, whether or not input records existed.
Additionally, it let you establish contents of fields prior to 1P output time,
which occurs prior to any other chance your code has to perform an EXSR even
when input records exist (and you used the cycle).

It was / is a very nice feature for cycle programs.  For non-cycle programs, it
has less merit and some would say obfuscates the code.  But at the time, it was
a nice addition and naturally can't be removed now anymore than the MOVE opcode
can.  <g>

Doug