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Perhaps the best argument I've ever heard from both sides at once.  Makes 
sense too.  IMHO as long as the code is well written and concise, with 
good documentation, the format of it makes no difference.  Just like a 
car, if one is blue and the other red, but they are both equal in all 
other aspects, then they are essentially the same, yet some would argue 
the color makes a difference.  Aside from the red being pulled over by the 
police more often (and that's fact based) they are the same.  I chalk it 
up to personal preference...

Ron Power
Programmer
Information Services
City Of St. John's, NL
P.O. Box 908
St. John's, NL
A1C 5M2
Tel: 709-576-8132
Email: rpower@xxxxxxxxxx
Website: http://www.stjohns.ca/
___________________________________________________________________________
Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm. - 
Sir Winston Churchill




Eduard Sluis <eduard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent by: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
28/07/2004 01:37 PM
Please respond to
RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


To
RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
cc

Subject
RE: converting  string to a numeric






Free format is great.
It makes it possible that all kind of programmers that have learned nasty 
languages as C, Java and so on can also create things on the AS/400 in the 
best language there is and in that way bringing new blood to the 
developers pool on the AS/400.
Because of Free they understand what they are doing.
For me that is the only reason why Free exist (and that is a very good 
reason)!
 
It is in no way a reason to start all kinds of wars between FixedFormat 
lovers and Free addicts. We can all exist without problems along each 
other.
 
If FreeFormat lovers think Free is more natural (because that is the way 
they have learned coding and they do not know nothing else), my pleasure.
 
If FixedFormat addict have problems to understand FreeFormat (because they 
are used to use the location of things to know it's meaning) and refuse to 
start using extra keystrokes to indicate what means what in Free, so be 
it.
 
The thing is that Free is not better than Fixed.
In Free and Fixed you can create exactly the same.
 
So I normally do things Fixed.
Not because I can not other.
Back in 1990 I came from C++ to the AS/400 and RPG.
Dear I loved that moment.
A real DBMS and external defined files, views, screens (do you remember 
the terrible programs to sort a file, to paint a screen, to....).
And the Gum (RPG) to fix it together?
OK, Fixed, at first difficult but:
- No searches anymore to find the mistyped Upper/Lower case names.
- No searches anymore to find the forgotten delimiter, forgotten...., 
forgotten.... that did not add up to the thing to do, but only to the 
language..... 
And now, I can't help, I like fixed.
I do not like to type to much.
I want to see at ones what what means.
I do not feel any constraint, have not any urge to use Free.
But do not see any reason why others would not use Free.
I could use Free when I think it is appropriate for a very specific part 
in a program.
I won't feel myself silly when I do.
 
Kind regards,
Eduard.
Chris Payne <CPayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
If you're going to argue that RPG started as fixed format, and therefore
should not be used in free format, you could just as easily say that RPG 
was
designed for punch cards, and should not be keyed in using 5250 terminals.

Chris Payne

-----Original Message-----
From: rob@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:rob@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 9:20 AM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: converting string to a numeric



Can you actually see someone making the argument that an existing free
format language needed to be converted into fixed format?  If RPG had
started out as /free can you imagine people actually arguing for fixed
formatting?  Are there strong debates in other languages to convert them
into fixed format?

Rob Berendt
--
Group Dekko Services, LLC
Dept 01.073
PO Box 2000
Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com


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| Sent by: | To|
| rpg400-l-bounces@midrange.| | com | ange.com> |
| | cc|
| 07/26/2004 05:43 PM | |
| | Subject|
| Please respond to | Re: |
| RPG programming on the | converting  st|
| AS400 / iSeries | ring to a |
| | numeric |
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> Call me old-fashioned but because indicators are such dangerous little
> suckers I'd rather see an explicit SETON or SETOFF operation.
>
> Use numeric operations for numeric operands, character operations for
> character operands, and indicator operations for indicator operands.

AMEN! And leave languages that are naturally fixed-source-format AS
fixed-source-format: if you're working in FORTRAN, for example, you can
indent all you want BEYOND Column 7, but keep the statements at or beyond
that column, and the continuations in 6, and the labels in 1-5. When a
language is designed to have a fixed source format, free-formatting the
source just makes it harder to read.

You want free-format source? Use Pascal, C, ALGOL, PL/I, LISP, Java, or
Modula-2. They're designed for it.

--
JHHL


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