My previous reply is intended to focus on the question of Should a
technology be introduced in an IT shop simply because it is the best
tool for a particular task.
Each technology introduced into an IT shop comes with a price. Service
Program has been introduced into our shop for several years now, but, a
lot of our programmers still made some of the most basic mistake above
service program. It is fairly easy to get the basic of how a technology
work. However, it takes a long time to become expert in it. It is
usually dangerous to create application when using technology that
programmer only have basic knowledge about. Weather it worth the time
or risk to implement it is base on the goal & vision of the shop. To
simply allow any programmer to use any language/technology simply
because it is the best tool, for me, is quite irresponsible.
As far as RPG cycle, may be, I've made too much assumption regarding it.
In my IT shop, 99.9% of programs are NON RPG cycle programs (Primary
file...). Most programmers here do not use traditional RPG cycle
programming. Under this condition, I just do not believe it is a good
to introduce cycle programming simply because it is the best tool for a
particular task. Non RPG cycle can be just as effective.
-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 6:00 PM
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Multi- Occurrence Data Structure
Lim Hock-Chai wrote:
5. RE: Multi- Occurrence Data Structure (Lim Hock-Chai)
Yes, RPG cycle is part of RPG. But not many RPG folks have good
understanding of what it does. If this is the case, then my next
question would be: Is it really that hard to create a loop without
using rpg Cycle? If the answer is no, it is not hard to do, then why
would you want to use a technology that most RPG programmers have
abandoned.
If your argument is about matching record, select record, look
ahead...
features in RPG cycle, Well, if you read the recent question that
posted about using RPG cycle to do record matching, you would know
that it took several tries from some of those experts to get it right.
Some even admitted that he has to reference the reference book to
finally got it. Then, the same question: is it really that hard to do
record matching, look ahead... without using RPG cycle?
The reference to the recent 'Matching Records' thread is a good one, and
it's hard to respond to directly.
But perhaps there's an indirect response that could be instructive --
Search the archives for almost _any_ subject within RPG to see how many
tries it takes to get it right, including replies where a
misunderstanding of a manual was admitted.
How many tries did it take before the recent question about setting
6-digit decimal fields with a current date value was properly answered?
How many times has the use of *BNDDIR QC2LE been explained by Scott?
How many times does it take to get a proper answer for displaying
multiple windows without losing the underlying format?
How many ways are there to use SETLL/READE in a loop, and should %FOUND
or %EOF be used?
What's the correct usage of %KDS() when using a partial key list?
Those are areas that have been discussed multiple times in recent years,
yet inconsistencies still show up in posts from multiple experts. It's
not because they're difficult or obscure; it's because programming
involves inhuman precision and accuracy. We simply don't commit manuals
to memory (unless you have a cybernetic brain that's tuned for it like
Scott's, which isn't intended as a negative statement).
I'm not sure it's fair to count responses to a subject that hasn't had
much discussion in the past ten years. I'm not even sure that the number
of MR posts was more than some of the others.
Tom Liotta
--
Tom Liotta
The PowerTech Group, Inc.
19426 68th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Phone 253-872-7788 x313
253-479-1416
Fax 253-872-7904
http://www.powertech.com
--
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