Could RPG become quasi-immune to level checks (was: Are level checks still useful?)

[Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The reason you don't have level checks in PHP (and similar environments)
> is because they don't have hard-coded from/to positions in fields in the
> record.  When you compile an RPG program, the compiler reads the
> external definition, and hard-codes the from/to positions of fields in
> the record into the program.  You have to recompile for it to update
> these -- and therefore, level checks are an important safeguard. Without
> them, if the file changes, you'll end up reading (or worse, writing)
> incorrect data at incorrect places in the record, causing a big huge mess.

Scott's post got me thinking.

Theoretically, could RPG be enhanced such that the from/to positions are
_not_ hard-coded at compile time?  Instead, based on field name (whether
renamed or not), the from/to positions would be established at run time.
 If so, one would also have to code updates properly, i.e., either  via
"Update RecordName %Fields(blah:blah:blah);" or making sure the O specs
have no end position.

Even though I have absolutely no experience whatsoever in compiler writing
(and don't want any), I can imagine how this would fundamentally affect the
compiler.