RE: Compiler directive

Scott,

Why can't IBM do it with RPG? 

I think this problem is an old one. The IBMers who handle the QSYSINC frequently
respond with "I don't know how you would do that in RPG" or "I don't know RPG
[IV] very well" or "It would break existing code if we did that."  And yet they
broke existing code by including 31-digit packed fields recently.
I my view the RPG includes should the highest priority and the ones on which the
others are based. Build the RPG IV includes first, then port those to the other
languages-not the other way round.  If this were Linux, I'd say create C
includes and then do the rest, but this is iSeries after all and regardless of
what anyone claims, 100% of the shops use RPG and some percentage uses
additional languages. 

-Bob Cozzi
www.iSeriesTV.com
Ask your Manager to watch iSeriesTV.com


-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Scott Klement
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 7:35 PM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: Compiler directive

Any modernized qsysinc includes would have to be set up so they
defaulted to the old version of the definitions.  Even if people were at
a release that supported QUALIFIED, they shouldn't have to change all
their programs to match the new qualified version of the definitions
with the nice subfield names.

Shrug...  ship QSYSINC with different source files for each version.  If I 
have (for example):

    /copy QSYSINC/RPGLEV4R5,QP0LSTDI

Then the definitions in the RPGLEV4R5 source file can be frozen at V4R5. 
If I want to re-write it to use the newer features in V5R1 (which is the 
release that has the biggest impact on this sort of thing) then I can 
re-do the code and use:

    /copy QSYSINC/RPGLEV5R1,QP0LSTDI

All they need to do is copy the file with each release, and upgrade the 
code as appropriate.

Presumably you'd have to /define something to pick up the new version.

Sorry, but...  YUCK.  I hate having to do a /define before using /copy... 
that's not elegant at all!  After a few releases the tangled mess of 
/defines and /if defined and /elses would make this code nearly impossible 
to follow.

What I don't understand is that IBM has been writing these types of 
prototype members for C since time out of mind.  Not just IBM, either! 
Virtually everyone who provides software aimed at the C developer provides 
include files, and manages to keep them working from release to release. 
Why can't IBM do it with RPG?  The same capabilities are all there now.