Re: will v6r1 RPG support main procedure recursion?

On 10/9/07, James Lampert <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Actually, when you take out the very few things unique to RPG, like The
Cycle, you end up with just another language, with very little to
distinguish it from any number of other programming languages.

There are a bunch of things in RPG that, by being rigid, inflexible,
"unitaskers" (as Alton Brown might put it), qualify as "legacy crap." A
number of them only have meaning in Cycle programs. But The Cycle, as a
thing in itself, is not one of them. In fact, I'd say there are more
UNconventional ways to use The Cycle constructively than there are
conventional ways, and as long as you understand the basic premise that
an RPG program lives inside a "DO UNTIL LR" loop, they're perfectly
understandable and maintainable.

Indeed, of the items you listed, Indicators are the only one that seems
like a maintenance nightmare,

they are global variables. therein lies the problem. my opinion of why
legacy code is so unworkable was formed last year working on a cobol
application. the heavy use of data struct redefines and performs that
used globals to "pass" arguments to the procedures made the code
unworkable. The RPG equivalent is the subrtn and data structs with
sub fields that overlay each other. RPG does not redefine to the
degree COBOL does, but the subrtn is pretty bad.

-Steve