RE: will v6r1 RPG support main procedure recursion?

From: Steve Richter

a GC makes two basic building blocks of code cost free. procedure
return values and adding items to a collection.

When you have a GC you can write code like so:
CustomerRecord[] customers = GetListOfCustomers( arg1: arg2 ) ;

without it:
CustomerRecord[] customers ;
GetListOfCustomers( customers: arg1: arg2 ) ;
// dont forget to free the customers struct!

the GC version is more readable.

See, this is the reason why I won't argue technical syntax. You say it's
more readable, and indeed it may be to some people. But that's not a valid
reason to fundamentally change the language.

Your entire argument has to do with "readability" which is pretty much a
non-starter for me. Again, please let me know what problem can't be solved
in RPG today.

By the way, I agree that the variably-sized collection concept is an issue.
But it's a much bigger issue than garbage collection, because GC doesn't
address the issue of paging collections. And in my opinion, letting the
operating system handle collections without the programmer actually doing
anything is what leads to coders reading entire transaction files into
memory. But that's a different argument for a different day.

Okay, done here. I just wanted to know what your point was, and in this
case it's pretty standard: you want to make RPG look like an OO language.
Me, I say allocate as necessary and end the activation group when you're
done.

Joe