RE: Standards question: What is your feeling about %found & %eof vs. %found(file) & %eof(file) ?

I always try to create readable (or "self documenting") code and always use %eof instead of %eof(name), because IMO this is much more readable. It is applying the priniciple of DRY (dont repeat yourself).
Unless, of course, the qualification is necessary. And this is an exception.


chain (custno) CUSTFILE
if %found;
endif;

is much easier to read than:

chain (custno) CUSTFILE
if %found(CUSTFILE);
endif;

Because in the latter case each time you read the code you have to check the qualification and if it really is referring to the last file operation. Although in most cases this is always the case. And reading/interpreting the unnecessary qualifier each time interferes with comprehending the code.

Also, when copying and pasting source you have to make sure you also change the corresponding qualifier. Always using a (unnecessary) qualifier makes you repeat the filename and this is then another source of error.


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Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 10:09:47 -0800
From: jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Standards question: What is your feeling about %found & %eof vs. %found(file) & %eof(file) ?

Joe Pluta wrote:

Anybody who has ever pontificated about "self-documenting" code
should be 100% behind the %eof(file) syntax.

Very true. And unless you REALLY WANT the "last accessed" file, and it
doesn't matter what that file is, it never hurts to qualify.

On another note, given that RPG doesn't give you indenting to show
nesting level, I always use ENDIF/ENDDO/ENDSL rather than END, and
frequently add comments to indicate which group I'm supposed to be
ending. Then again, at times, I have enough nesting levels active that
if I draw nesting lines on a printout (and I find I rarely go through a
week without having to analyze nesting at least once), I might go
through five ink colors twice.

--
James H. H. Lampert
Touchtone Corporation

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