Re: RPG

Hi, Mark:

I was only trying to clarify Vern's general statements about those languages and their use of the semicolon.

IBM has apparently chosen to use the semicolon as a statement terminator for free-form RPG IV, much as it is used in PL/I. I suspect that this choice was dictated to some extent by the evolution of the RPG IV compiler from the older "fixed format" line-at-a-time model where "ELSE" and "END-IF" were implemented as language "statements" (on separate C-spec lines), rather than just being treated as keywords within some larger "statement" syntax, as in most of those other modern languages mentioned previously.

I may not always agree 100% with every little choice that IBM has made along t he way, but overall, I take my hat off to Barbara Morris and the team at IBM ToroLabs for evolving the RPG IV language into a more modern form, while preserving the "backward compatibility" we expect on this platform (OS/400 -> IBM i) to allow continuity for maintaining older legacy or heritage applications going forward, while also allowing new development projects to more easily take advantage of some of the latest techniques.

HTH,

Mark S. Waterbury

> On 7/20/2016 12:04 PM, Mark Murphy/STAR BASE Consulting Inc. wrote:

But look, RPG just simplified the PL/I version from

IF (A < B) THEN DO;
Z = A;
END;
ELSE DO;
Z = B;
END;

to

IF (A < B);
Z = A;
ELSE;
Z = B;
ENDIF;


Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx