RE: Convert from free to fixed

I can understand where you're coming from, Tom. I have to maintain a gazillion (it seems) lines of RPG II code running in the 36E. Sometimes the change is so simple a few lines of code do the trick. Other times not quite; then I write an RPG IV program and call it from the RPG II program. Occasionally changes they (whoever "they" are) wanted were impossible to do with a few lines or a call so I had to re-write the RPG II program, but I re-wrote it in RPG IV. In my case it's not so much the integrity of the RPG II code (which is a mess) but a matter of time (adding lines and testing -vs- re-writing and testing).

When talking about fixed -vs- free-format (which I thought was the discussion, anyway), I don't see how integrity becomes an issue. I had a bushel basketful of fixed-format RPG IV code, but after reading up on /free, I simply used WDSc to convert them to /free (well, there were some exceptions, like the ones that used gobs of MOVEs and Z-ADDs; that took some real work). There is no integrity issue here. Even converting an RPG/400 program to IV isn't an integrity issue (well, the EVAL will blow up on data overflow until ADD). I can see the point about inserting a few lines of /free code amongst a boatload of fixed format code (and vice versa) 'cause it's ugly. But I don't see that a program's "integrity" is harmed by adding a subroutine or subprocedure bracketed by /free /end-free any more than if, when adding a new table, an SQL SELECT was used instead of a RLA F-spec.

I admit that I'm in a position to program any way that I think best since I'm the only IBM i programmer here. But I was the chief programmer and D/P manager at other companies with 2-n programmers. I loved it when we challenged each other with "Hey, look at this...". RPG II was good; I even wrote subfiles in it. But IV is better and different. I once fired a guy because he couldn't move forward. But words like "forward," "better," and "different" are subjective terms. In fact, I once quit a job with no prospects on the horizon because I was not allowed to use subprocedures, modules, and such. Regretted it when the bills kept coming due, but I'm feeling much better now. .-)

Jerry C. Adams
IBM System i Programmer/Analyst
I have opened it. - Alfred Lord Tennyson's last words. No one knows what he was talking about.