RE: activation groups and rclrsc

> From: Tony Carolla
> 
> As I understand it, each time you call a program that was created with the
> ACTGRP(*NEW) specified in the header, a new activation group is created
> for the job.  This can be costly, if in your example you have three
> program calls, that means that three new activation groups will be
> created, one for each program, each time each program is called.  If
> you call the same program three times, you get a new activation
> group created all three times.
> 
> This can lead to slow runtimes.

Tony's right, and let me clarify my position on this: the original post was
talking about a program that is sometimes called from the menu and sometimes
called from another program.  Usually this happens when the program is
called in response to the user hitting a function key in another program
(for example, one inqruiy allows you to hit F15 as a shortcut to another
inquiry).  If the program is ONLY called in response to a user action (such
as selecting a menu option or hitting a function key) then the overhead of
extra activation groups should not be a problem.

There are rare occasions, though, where a program is sometimes called as a
display file program, and sometimes called as a subprogram to do something.
I remember an allocation program that could be called standalone to maintain
a single allocation or could be called over and over again by order entry or
shop floor control to maintain all the allocations for an entire order.  In
this case, creating a new AG for every line item could indeed be costly.
However, that situation is pretty rare, and in fact you can usually spot
such programs because the display file is defined with USROPN in the file
specification.

So, my rule of thumb is this: A program called from a menu that does NOT
have USROPN in the display file specification is usually a good candidate
for *NEW AG.

Joe