Re: Chalk one up for "The Cycle" -- RPG400-L

If I ever need to write a matching records program again, I'll
probably use the cycle. The odds of me writing a matching records
program again are slim at best. However, when I was processing 4 tape
drives against a 2 hopper MFCU on a S/3 Model 8, it was certainly the
way to go.

On 4/26/07, Jerry Adams <jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

No, because it is sometimes easier to do something with the cycle than
against it. Try doing matching records in a non-cycle program. 99% of
my programs are non-cycle, but knowing the cycle can be a time saver.
When I was teaching RPG (eons ago it seems), teaching to the cycle was
the first step. Today I doubt that it is even mentioned in RPG classes,
like it's a bad thing to be avoided. Pshaw!

* Jerry C. Adams
*IBM System i5/iSeries Programmer/Analyst
B&W Wholesale Distributors, Inc.* *
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Michael Ryan wrote:
> Why is the cycle important? Because you can code something in two
> lines rather than six lines? What is that important?
>
> On 4/25/07, James H. H. Lampert <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Yes, the same thing could be accomplished with Interactive
>> SQL. If I were as skilled in SQL as I am in RPG, C,
>> OPNQRYF, CL, MI, PL/I, BASIC, FORTRAN, HTML, &c. (which
>> I'm not). And if the box in question had Interactive SQL
>> (which it apparently doesn't). As such, even if that
>> option had been open to me, it obviously never occurred to
>> me, and even if it had occurred to me, it would have had
>> me poring over "SQL for Dummies" for about as long as it
>> took me to just do the damn thing and get it over with.
>>
>> My point is that forcing a (repaired) update trigger to
>> trip on every record of a file, without actually changing
>> the file, would take a lot more lines of code to
>> accomplish in C, PL/I, or even a non-Cycle RPG program
>> (where it would take at least 6 lines, including either a
>> RETURN or a SETON LR, to suppress The Cycle).
>>
>> And my point was aimed at those who insist that The Cycle
>> (which I see as one of the very few good reasons to use
>> RPG instead of some other language) is obsolete and
>> useless.
>>
>> --
>> JHHL
>> --
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>>
>>

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