RE: procedure parameter names

Everbody is flaming IBM for 10 character long object names and here a developer uses 7 characters for his variable name (which makes it impossible to even guess what it should mean) when he could use over a thousand characters to make it really readable.

And I know that he's not the only one. My guess is that this represents the majority.

Can't blame IBM at all for keeping 10 character long object names.


Mihael


-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David FOXWELL
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 9:18 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Subject: [SPAM 1]procedure parameter names

Hi,

We're relooking at the naming conventions we are using for parameters in procedures.

RPG III was simple, with 6 character field names we had two syllables of 3 characters followed by 2 characters and a prefix I or O.

Then, when RPGIV came, we kept the 6 character field names but the prefix A was used for input and output. If the parameter name began with a vowel, the suffix is An. Nobody knows why.
Eg Elephant Name would have been IELPNM. Now it would be AnElpNm.

Furthur imposed, is the use of 2 data structures for the parameters.

So, we now have, for the procedure MonPrcNom (mon procédure nom !)

D MonPrcNom PR N
D AMonPrcNomIn LIKEDS (MonPrcNomInDs) CONST
D AMonPrcNomOut LIKEDS (MonPrcNomOutDs)

In the definition of the DS you find the actual parameter names eg,
D MonPrcNomInDs DS TEMPLATE QUALIFIED
D AnElpNm LIKE(DFN_ELPNM)

Note that the prefix A or An is now in 2 places, because the actual parameter name is AMonPrcNomIn.AnElpNm. Somewhere in there is the elephant's name!

Any thoughts?
Thanks.