Re: Constants in RPG

["Roger Harman" <RHarman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At COMMON some years ago, an IBM'r was discussing variable names and
used a comparison to how RPG, COBOL, and C programmers name their
children.

RPG Programmer
    Billy
    Joe
    Bob
    Sally 
    Sue
    Mary
    Jo
    Beth

COBOL Programmer
    BillyJoeBob
    SallySue
    MaryJoBeth

C Programmer
   (points to each)




> > > alan0307d@xxxxxxxxx 04/01/2009 7:16:56 AM >>>
Hell, all the programmers around here are still using 6 character
names.
Drives me crazy. You have 4096 so you use 6 character names so the
maintenance programmer doesn't have a clue what they are. Won't even
use 10
characters in field names in tables.

On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 8:56 AM, Jerry Adams <Jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> <snip>
> Amazing thing is that there are actually people who use named
constants.
> Everyone I have ever known just puts AField = 52;. What the hell is
52 but
> most places including the current the programmers would have a fit it
they
> had to identify a constant. I am the only person who ever did it.
> </snip>
>
> Alan,
>
> I agree with your comment about the ambiguity of 'AField'.  But that
> reminded me of when I first started learning Cobol some years ago
(OK, a few
> decades ago).  The instructors touted it as being "self-documenting"
because
> one could have a 35-character field name.  When I started using it
(gave it
> up for Lent some time ago), I noticed that "veteran" Cobol
programmers
> usually used 6-10 character field names.  Heck, we had to hand-write
> programs on coding sheets back then!  I doubt that I'll personally
reach the
> 4096 character limit in RPG IV any time soon.
>
>
> Jerry C. Adams
> IBM System i Programmer/Analyst
> --
> B&W Wholesale
> office: 615-995-7024
> email:  jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
>
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