Re: What do you call the new freeform RPG?

Saying you don't like free-format RPG because you only have SEU to edit
it with is a bit like saying you don't like International travel because
you only have a bicycle.

Trevor Briggs
Analyst/Programmer
Lincare, Inc.
(727) 431-1246
TBriggs2@xxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Yeung
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 6:25 PM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: Re: What do you call the new freeform RPG?

On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 5:43 PM, Buck Calabro <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

With apologies to all RPG programmers, absolutely the hardest RPG to
read and maintain uses only opcodes COMP, MOVE, ADD, SUB and MULT.

Oh,

and 3 columns of left hand indicators and 6 character variable names,
all scoped globally without the... the burden of extraneous lines of
code like BEGSR. Yeah, RPG might /seem/ more complicated today, but
it's way easier to work with than in Ye Olden Days.

I don't think many RPG programmers need apologies for the above
comments. I certainly don't.

But I think I will always be one of the defenders of those crazy,
staunch few who actually prefer at least some aspects of fixed-column
RPG syntax to free. It's not (for me) out of obstinate clinging to
tradition or refusal to change. It's that I really, honestly, truly
believe that it is easier for the eyes to always just know where to
go, rather than sift through arbitrarily dense and arbitrarily
positioned code.

I think it's important to note here for those who don't know me that I
actually split my time between writing TRULY free-form code in other
languages (mainly Python) and do prefer *good* free-form syntax. The
problem for me is that RPG's free form has too many warts compared to
most languages designed to be free-form from the ground up. (I'm sure
it doesn't help that where I do my RPG coding, all we have is SEU,
which I find makes free form RPG both harder to read AND write than
column-based.)

(Buzz, I do notice you picked opcodes that are either particularly
troublesome or so incredibly "low density" that the advantage of
uniformity is usually not going to outweigh being able to, say, write
arithmetic in a natural manner. The one notable case which I think is
arguable is that fixed-format "ADD 1 X" is a nice, visually drop-dead
clear way to say "increment X", and depending on your eyes, clearer
than "X += 1". "X = X + 1" might seem clearest of all, but it gets
burdensome when X takes on a more verbose and descriptive name.)

To be clear, I don't think there is *any* advantage to RPG III over
RPG IV. Really, just none. I honestly cannot even imagine that
anyone could possibly think that. (Especially since you can literally
write in exactly the same style in RPG IV if you really, really want
to; but with additional breathing room.)

John
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