Re: Challenges using service programs, binding directories, etc.

Thanks, everyone, for your replies!

Some quick hits:

I don't actually know if they use EXPORT(*ALL) here. I didn't mean to
imply that from the command sample I provided.

I just now registered on Turnover's website; waiting for approval.

Thanks for those links, John. Good info!

The question I know I'm going to be asked: What are the pros/cons of
service programs vs. non-service programs?
Or...
What is the advantage of ...
d WrapText2 pr 12288 Varying RtnParm
d UnfText 8192 Varying Const Options(*VarSize)
d LineLen 5 0 Const
d LineBreak1 10 Varying Const Options(*NoPass)
d LineBreak2 10 Varying Const Options(*NoPass)
NotesArrayDS = WrapText2( %trimr( c_SPdetl) : 80 : '~' : '|' );
vs.
C call 'WRAPTEXT2'
C parm LongString 12288
C parm LineLength 5 0
C parm Tilde 1
C parm Vbar 1
C parm ReturnArray

On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 2:17 PM, John Yeung <gallium.arsenide@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 1:06 PM, Buck Calabro <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 8/18/2015 12:00 PM, Dan wrote:

My
supervisor did not give details on what the issues were, as they rarely
need to touch the affected applications anymore, so I don't know what

the

exact issues were. But, obviously, the battle scars are still kinda raw.

Before Buck gets into potential technical issues, I would like to take
a side trip to another thing he wrote. It was regarding a thread on
this list titled

Need some ammunition (Procedures vs. Sub-routines)

The particular post is

http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l/201312/msg00348.html

It has to do with recognizing when the challenges are emotional rather
than rational (which is probably most of the time; and in my
experience, it never hurts to assume there's at least a significant
emotional component).

I may be asked to present my case to the "group of 3" development

leaders

here, and it would be nice if I can present how to overcome the typical
challenges. If anyone is aware of articles that discuss this and, as

well,

the benefits to using service programs, I would appreciate links.

Can't say I know of a 'fan page' for service programs but [...]

I guess this list in part serves the role of fan page. But it's not
like there's one link. It's more of a recurring topic of discussion.
Two threads that I think are worth reading are the one I mentioned
above, which started in Dec 2013 and continued into Jan 2014. Another
is from Jan 2015, titled

Service programs, procedures, not sure what to do

(I give the subject lines and the months because it may work better to
just go to the relevant monthly pages in the archives rather than
using the search feature.)

This list has pretty much reached consensus on best practices for
newcomers to follow.

Has it? I know you have a pretty good idea what to recommend
newcomers, based on your own experience, but my impression is that
there are always disagreements on the approach to take. Mainly,
there's a camp which seems to advocate trying to push "expert
practices" as early as possible, so that newcomers have the most
direct path possible toward expertise, and have the least chance to
settle into "initially easier but ultimately suboptimal" habits.

The other camp (which I perceive you to be in, but I'm speaking as
someone with almost no service program experience myself) emphasizes
making things as easy and undaunting as possible, so that there's at
least *some* movement. Of course, there's an attempt not to promote
actively bad practices, but "good enough" is good enough, especially
if it's already significantly better than the status quo.

Not all the disagreements fall neatly into that dichotomy either. For
example, when you describe binding directories, you make it sound very
newbie-friendly. But when Alan or others talk about Make tools (and
the futility and frustration of binding directories), that certainly
sounds newbie-friendly as well.

In any event, I just wanted to share a couple more links, again to
Buck's "mini-tutorials" (you seem to write one at the beginning of
each year). These are both from the threads I mentioned above:

http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l/201401/msg00076.html
http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l/201501/msg00025.html

The one from Jan 2014 in particular seems almost ready-made for a wiki
on the subject.

John Y.
--
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