Re: free form RPG reference -- RPG400-L

I'm planning on requesting management approval

> for using free form RPG in our application.

For once I'll skip the political debate.

Does anybody has any reference materials

> about benefit of using free form

I don't know of any studies that provide hard data. As far as I know,there are no modern languages that are column based, and darned few oldones. If columns are so great why doesn't every language use them?

You definitely have to think about the earliest release of OS400 you aregoing to support.

Finally, free form is about how the code 'looks.' There are someenhancements that are free-form only, and there are some operations thatfree-form does not support (CALL, GOTO, MOVEx are the big ones).

This is my personal opinion only, but I have no problem mixing free andfixed operations together:


     c     *entry        plist
     c                   parm                    full_path
     c                   parm                    dirname
     c                   parm                    basename
     c                   parm                    extn
     c                   parm                    rtncode

      /free

        // initialisation
        dirname  = *blanks;
        basename = *blanks;
        extn     = *blanks;
        rtncode  = UNKNOWN;

or

       // no input, normal exit
       if full_len = 0;
         rtncode = NORMAL;
      /end-free
     c                   goto      skip_tests
      /free

Other people find this ugly. I find that the occasional jump back totraditional format attracts my eye to these exceptional areas; placeswhere something strange or special happens.

Be advised that other programmers in your group may have a verydifferent idea about what is pretty or ugly code than you. Personally Idon't find it hard to adapt to the styles of my coworkers. Some peoplelike:


basename = %subst(full_path: path_demarc+1: basename_len);

and some like:

basename = %subst(full_path:
                  path_demarc+1:
                  basename_len);

Both run as fast, compile as fast and are simple to modify. All that'sleft is the argument as to which looks better. In my group, I proposeda set of standards for indenting and let the group decide whether toadopt them, modify them or let everyone do what they want. Since I amthe senior guy, they decided to do whatever they want. <grin>

Just be prepared to have possible long debates over indentation rulesand other 'matters of style.' To prepare yourself, look up what theVisual Basic people were arguing about in 1980, or the C people weredebating in 1970.


> and may be a quick guide of syntax of free

form that I can use?

The RPG Reference is the only thing I ever use. In the Infocenter athttp://www.iseries.ibm.com/infocenter I always download the latest PDFso I don't have to go online for reference.

  --buck