RE: Max length of a VARYING field

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Scott Klement
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 1:20 PM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: Max length of a VARYING field

Joe Pluta wrote:

I have explained in detail why I prefer the auto-sized prefix approach.
It's 100% backwards compatible with no additional keywords to learn.

Not

sure it's "better" or even "mine" since it grew out of discussions on

the

forum, but it's the one I prefer.

All of the approaches are 100% backward compatible. (IBM won't
implement anything else, so it's really a moot point. Unless you intend
to go back to the "system value" discussion, but I think we're well
beyond that.)

The learning curve of the explicit approach and the implicit approach
seem about the same to me. Learning the changes to the existing VARYING
keyword vs. learning to add a 4 or 8 to the end of the VARYING keyword
(or whatever) are not significantly different.

The implicit means you have to learn the "magic". I.e., you do nothing
differently, but you have to understand that when a var exceeds 65535,
it'll use a 4-byte prefix. When it exceeds 4294967295, it'll use an
8-byte prefix. So with your approach, all you have to do is remember
those two numbers.

The drawbacks, which I've already explained several times: (a) You
can't deliberately pick a prefix size, it HAS to be based on the length.
(b) it's a "magic" approach, you can't see it in the code, you have to
understand that it'll happen for you under the covers.

I've already given several circumstances where it'd be nice to be able
to explicitly specify them. I don't think I have to repeat those
circumstances again.

Basically: Your way lacks flexibility that my way provides. But I've
already said *all* of these things in previous messages. Your response
to my most recent one was "you can pass the length in a different
parameter".

And you're right. You can. And I will if I have to. But, if I get a
vote, my vote is to make it possible for me to specify the length
explicitly so I don't have to. This simplifies my code, it provides
extra value to me, and I believe it'll provide extra value to others.

Your approach provides all the same advantages of allowing longer
strings, but lacks this one little bit of extra flexibility, and in my
mind, that's the only difference between them.

I just want to emphasize out that I've already said all of the preceding
stuff in previous messages -- except for the bit about "you're right,
you can pass the length separately", since I thought that was obvious.

You must be much fun in design meetings... <grin> Seriously, Scott,

that's

the point: if you present your opinion in a public forum, people are

allowed

to disagree with you, and tell you why! If your only desire is to tell

us

what your opinion is and we shouldn't gainsay it, then you're on the

road to

becoming an "industry expert".

[SNIP]

Do you see what you're saying? You just want to tell everyone what your
opinion is. And really, that isn't even the case: you want everyone to
AGREE with your opinion, else you wouldn't argue about it.

[SNIP]

Anyway, if I've offended you, Scott, by presenting alternate positions,

then

I apologize. If your goal really is to simply present your opinions

without

any discourse, then I'll try in the future to not comment on your posts.

You believe that I'm not willing to consider any opinion but my own, I
guess. I'm sorry you feel that way. I thought I had already considered
your opinions and responded to them, and that we were simply re-hashing
the same argument over and over again. (i.e. what I emphasized above,
repeating the same points.)

In my mind, there's a distinction between "not wanting to listen" and
"not wanting to argue".

Again, for many years, any discussion where I (or Bob, or Trevor, or..
or...) disagree with you will turn into a long, protracted argument.
That's all I want to avoid. I want us to say our opinions and stop
without a protracted argument.

People reading this will point out the irony of me trying to stop an
argument by responding to it. They'll say that this doesn't make sense.

Unfortunately, when you say things like you've said in this thread (that
I can't accept any opinion but my own, that I'm a jerk in design
meetings, that I'm full of myself because I consider myself an expert,
etc) I feel like I have to give *some* sort of response.
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