Re: free-format move *USA date value to 6-digit numeric in YMDformat -- RPG400-L

In IBMs defense, I will point out the immense size of the ship we aredriving.

IBM has maintained backward and forward compatibility in an environmentthat prizes change over all else. The MS solution has to been to writethe new code and make the old code not just obsolete, but also unusable.Thank goodness IBM has stuck to their values and not left us havingto rewrite core code every four years or so.

Their need to offer changes while maintaining our code base is, to mymind, essential. The fact that they choose to spread the changes over afew releases is a small irritant in my opinion. The upside is that weget to see whats coming.





Scott Klement wrote:

I mean in V5R1, V5R2 and V5R3 there are subtle "enhancements" to thelanguage that are all related (such as the example above) in whichpartial solutions are introduced in a point release and then the nextpart of the solution is introduced in the next point release and so on.
No kidding. I'm very tired of these "half-written" features that RPGseems to get.
At various releases we have had all of the following:

- Pointers without pointer arithmetic
- No MOVE in free-format, but no way to convert char to number
- %char() not converting numbers to character
- %dec() and %int() not converting character to number.
- %dec() and %int() not converting dates to numbers
- DSPLY op-code and requirement for at least a space in the factor 1
- Read data into a data structure, but only for program described files
- Read data into a DS, but only if you use the record format name andLIKEREC
- Prototypes, but no way to pass a data structure.
- LIKEDS but not with an array.
- LIKEDS with an array, but no LOOKUP or SORTA
It just seems like they leave out things that they know people willneed. They introduce half of what we need at once, and introduce therest at some point in the future.
This leads to poor adoption of the new techniques, because they'reawkward at first. Once they become less awkward, people don't adoptthem because they have to remain compatible with old releases.
It also leads to it being difficult to teach anything, because you haveto teach people 10 different ways of doing everything.