Re: What do you call the new freeform RPG?

[Chris Holko <cholko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I take issue with the new free form RPG in that it's way to verbose. I would have preferred C type declarations 

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> On Apr 21, 2014, at 8:32 AM, "Briggs, Trevor (TBriggs2)" <TBriggs2@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> 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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