Re: Where to post ideas for RPG

On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 10:19 AM, Barbara Morris <bmorris@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Mark already posted this RFE last week, which he linked to in this very
thread:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=93114

The discussion about that RFE prompted a comment that the SQL function was
already available. The limitations of the SQL function make it clear to me
that RPG built-in functions %MAX and %MIN would still be useful, even if
everyone has access to the SQL precompiler.

%MAX and %MIN are perfect candidates for RPG built-ins, since it's not
possible to write a single easy-to-use RPG procedure to handle each of these
functions.

I fully agree on all counts, and I did vote for that RFE[1] as soon as
it was presented.

I also think that for the meantime (while we wait for RPG to grow
those BIFs, and then wait for our respective shops to upgrade to the
new RPG compiler), if the SQL precompiler is available, that is the
best option within RPG.

[1]Though I noticed that it didn't explicitly mention the case where
the first and only argument is an array, in which case it should
return the appropriate element of the array. I think it should be able
to handle that as well as the described variable number of atomic
arguments, right? Or would there need to be another set of BIFs, like
%ARRAYMAX and %ARRAYMIN?

John Y.