RE: Making sense of 4-byte binary fields

Well... 20I 0 can only hold 19-digits, but 20U0 can hold 20-digits.
All I know is that when I teach RPG IV, many people (not most, but many)
have used the "B" data types before and refer to them as 4-byte binary and
2-byte binary. I have rarely if at all heard anyone refer to a 4-byte binary
field as a 9-digit binary field. 
In trying to teach people prototyping of OS/400 APIs, the fact that the docs
call them Bin(4) and Bin(2) (among other things) is easily translated into
4-byte int or 2-byte int.  Hence 4I0 and 2I0 is much quicker to absorb. I
mean look at the notes on this list--how many regular and advanced RPG
programmers continue to use 4B or 1 to 4B0 or 5 to 8B0 notation? It is
obvious to me that 10I0 will only be absorbed by the body of RPG IV
programmers through osmosis. 

At the end of the day my goal is get people to stop using the ULTRA SLOW and
EXTREMELY INEFFICIENT "B" data types.  We're already a little pregnant as
they say with respect to 5i0 and 10i0 already being out there.



-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces+cozzi=rpgiv.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces+cozzi=rpgiv.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tony
Carolla
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 2:43 PM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: Making sense of 4-byte binary fields

<snip>
> How is 10I0 more clear than 4I0
> Vs.
> 32I 0
> ???
</snip>

I think the crux here is that these binary fields don't conform to the
way that other numeric types are coded.  A 6S0 is so named because you
can fit six digits, _any_ six digits inside.  From a casual glance,
one would assume that a 4I 0 would hold four digits.  At the same
time, a 10I 0 won't hold _any_ ten digits, it will hold ten.  But this
is at least closer to the RPG way of specifications.  I guess a 4I0
can hold any four bytes, but not digits.

If we started D-spec'ing based on storage taken, then what about
packed?  shouldn't a 5P 0 be a  3P 0 -- three bytes are used.



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