From: rob@xxxxxxxxx
How's about we make an agreement to get our last words in today (Friday
December 21), and enjoy the Holy Day and let it rest for at least a few
weeks?
Okay, last words. Well, my only words on the topic. As I noted in a
message a few days ago, I'm going to try to avoid "opinion" arguments and
simply present my experiences and/or expertise.
I just got done writing a cycle program today. Absolutely perfect for what
I needed. I threw together a little home-grown offline backup utility, and
part of the process is to maintain a file of library definitions.
The easiest way to do this is to do a DSPFD to an output file, then read the
output file and update the library definition file.
I COULD do this with SQL, sure, using an INSERT INTO with a SELECT, and that
would even be "future-proof" if IBM changes the layout of the DSPOBJD file.
However, I wanted to do a little preprocessing to determine some additional
field values before writing the record.
I could have done this with CASE statements in SQL, but IMHO CASE statements
get very unwieldy if you go past one or two conditions. A procedural SQL
language like PL/SQL would probably work justr fine, but I don't need one
because I have RPG!
I used RPG and an input primary file. My little program took maybe 45
seconds to write, about 10 seconds to test, and another 30 seconds to make a
minor change. WDSC made it very easy to make sure I got the field names
right, and I'm pretty confident that not only does it perform as well as
SQL, it will be much easier to maintain when I put in more conditions down
the road. And if IBM changes DSPOBJD in V6R1, I'll have to do a DSPOBJD to
my work file and then (horrors!) recompile the program.
I'm okay with that.
My half a nickel.
Merry Christmas to all!
(BTW, I say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. This is not meant as
disrespect to anybody else's holiday preference, but instead to indicate my
holiday observance, and to wish the best to you during this season, whatever
traditions you hold dear. I don't ask that you celebrate the way I do, but
at the same time I'll be darned if political correctness will force me to
STOP wishing folks Merry Christmas!)
midrange.com
