RE: Style choices -- RPG400-L

Good points. Clearly, we have people in both camps (with some crossover) on this issue.

I was fortunate to have a great instructor for my first COBOL class and we were doing 3-level break programs mid-semester. so, I guess I've always valued having control in my programs

My RPG instructor was also great and a very progressive guy who did go through the cycle but stressed structured programming and not using it. When I got a job in his shop (he hired six of us from his class), I ended up doing a lot of "C" on PC's doing apps that passed data back & forth between the S/38. So, the "magic" Brad cites is just normal stuff to me. To some RPG folks I work with, those code examples would be mind blowing.

Even though they're all implicit, I do make a distinction between things like *INZSR, default open, RETURN, etc. I just tend to think *some* implicit actions are "normal" vs "magic"

To me, the "magic" things I don't like include the cycle, LDA, and *INZSR. To others, they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. I maintain programs with these regularly but, other than the LDA (shop standards), I don't use them in new code.

We're all a product of our training/upbringing/experience and take different approaches.

Roger Harman
COMMON Certified Application Developer – ILE RPG on IBM i on Power
OCEAN User Group

----------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2015 07:31:54 -0500
Subject: Re: Style choices
From: bvstone@xxxxxxxxx
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx

While I don't use the cycle every day (Lx level breaks), I loved it when I
used it. It did a lot of the grunt work magically for me. :)

I still think of it as a fond friend who's there if I need (but probably
won't, and refuse to talk smack about it...haha).

"Magic" can be in the eye of the beholder.

i += 1
ordersExist = (numberOfOrders> 0)

Even though simple, these are expressions that RPG programmers aren't very
used to unless they've trained in other languages. They could be
considered magic from a certain point of view.

Brad
www.bvstools.com

On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 7:22 AM, Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

I agree with Peter. The level breaks especially. Not using a feature
because no other language has it just doesn't make sense to me.

On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 1:22 AM, Peter Dow <petercdow@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Roger,

Sorry, but "Despise" seems pretty harsh. "magic" code? Are all your

files

USROPN? Do you feel the need to explicitly open and close every file?

Do

you always put in "return" at the end of every procedure even if it

doesn't

return a value? If you know what something does, is it still magic?

I dislike coding level breaks when RPG will handle all that for me. I

know

what it does and when it does it. I effectively told it to do it when I
defined the level breaks the the L1-9 indicators. I know what the *inzsr
subroutine does when I use it -- by using it, I told it to do that. No
magic here.

My opinion of course.

--
*Peter Dow* /
Dow Software Services, Inc.
909 793-9050
petercdow@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:petercdow@xxxxxxxxx>
pdow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:pdow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> /

On 9/9/2015 12:02 PM, Roger Harman wrote:

I'll use subroutines for a quick & dirty little task - depending on the
usage - but it's pretty rare.

99% of the time, I'll use procedures. Local variables alone are worth
it. Return values are..... invaluable.

As to *INZSR.... I have NEVER used it. I despise "magic" code. Something
that just happens without me telling it to? No way.

I always have an Init() procedure or subroutine instead of *INZSR.

Roger Harman
COMMON Certified Application Developer - ILE RPG on IBM i on Power

-----Original Message-----

From: RPG400-L [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of

Booth

Martin
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2015 5:25 PM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Subject: Style choices

Sometimes I befuddle myself. This is one of those times.

It was suggested to me that we should be using PR & PI instead of
subroutines. Is that a good suggestion? Does that include *INZSR too?

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Jeff Crosby
VP Information Systems
UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531
www.dilgardfoods.com

The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the opinion of my
company. Unless I say so.
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