I know I'm talking about things I liked about "mod marks," but I do want to be clear that I would prefer to do away with them in favor of coding right away in position 1 and utilizing a better method (aka version control) to identify changed code.
I've mainly used mod-marks in regard to troubleshooting issues as well as for code review. In terms of new modifications, I don't ever reference them. I do get picky though. I hate blank lines having mod-marks on them, but people often do that b/c it's easy to block copy it in. (I argue it's just as easy to go to those lines and ctrl-end to get rid of the mark.)
I see a lot more value in getting those 5 columns back for coding, however. Even without a version control system.
Kurt Anderson
Sr. Programmer/Analyst - Application Development, Service Delivery Platform
-----Original Message-----
From: RPG400-L [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Scott Klement
Sent: Sunday, September 20, 2015 1:32 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Coding in Column 1
Kurt,
Have you found it useful to have "mod marks"? Have you ever found them useful in making a new modification or working out a problem? I know I haven't.
They aren't as bad as the people who insist on commenting out all old code and keeping it all in the member. I find that makes the code completely unreadable and unmaintainable over time. Mod marks aren't nearly as bad.
But, since they don't tell you what the code looked like before the modication, I've found mod marks completely useless. Add that to the fact that the only exist in RPG and no other language, and you realize how pointless these things are.
The right way to do this is to use a source version control package.
Even a free tool like git, subversion, etc works soooo much better.
So that's my opinion. Find a better way, and then YES get rid of the mod marks!
-SK
On 9/18/2015 2:24 PM, Kurt Anderson wrote:>
I was curious what the community thinks about getting rid of the 'mod
mark' concept (putting a ticket/request/whatever # in columns 1-5)?
In my 15+ years of RPG, every shop I've been at has marked changed
code with some kind of value in columns 1-5. But soon we'll have the
ability to 'unreserve' columns 1-7 and start coding in column 1 like
most (all?) other languages.
I'm meeting resistance on our team about taking advantage of those
columns in that way (especially with the ability to code past column
80). Will any of your teams be foregoing this mod-mark concept and
embrace coding starting in column 1?
--
This is the RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) (RPG400-L) mailing list To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit:
http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at
http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.
midrange.com
