Re: RpgMap: a versatile key/value store for ile rpg

The rm_ doesn't really bother me as all the rm_ procedures would at least indicate to me that they belong to a common library. But if enough of us start writing libraries, namespacing them as a part of the procedure name is going to become a problem. Particularly when someone comes up with a rating module that uses the same rm_ namespace. There is an RFE out on developerworks that requests a better way to namespace things like this, and it is going to become more important as libraries develop. Maybe taking a page out of the XML book and allowing a locally customized namespace would be a way to go.

The syntax could be something like:
dcl-ns code Srvpgm([library/]name) Prototypes([library/]name);

A procedure name would then be something like:
[code::]procedureName(...);

Then you could write

dcl-ns rm rpgmap/rmsrvpgm;

rm::map(...);

Or for those who want a longer namespace:

dcl-ns RPGMap rpgmap/rmsrvpgm;

RPGMap::map(...);

The code completion routines could easily recognize namespaces defined in a source and offer to complete them with :: and then include a list of available procedures in the namespace. The outline could even group prototypes by namespace. This isn't all in that RFE yet, maybe I should add it as a comment.

Mark Murphy
Atlas Data Systems
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: -----
To: Rpg400 Rpg400-L <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 07/22/2017 05:27PM
Subject: Re: RpgMap: a versatile key/value store for ile rpg


Looks really interesting Jacobus - I'll certainly be downloading and giving it a test drive.

One immediate comment though - why oh why such terse names? the meaning of rm_ really doesn't jump out at you. And frankly the function names within the set aren't much better. I can understand there's a bi of an argument to be made for sticking to things like rm_sll - although personally I would still much prefer something like rpgmap_setLowerLimiit. I know I can rename it all to my hearts content but that would kind of defeat the purpose of a standard library.

Am I alone in this or did others have a similar reaction when they saw this?


Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com

On Jul 22, 2017, at 3:43 AM, jacobus erps <jacobus.erps@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi All,

Compared with more dynamic languages RPG has no dynamic data structures or
collection types such as lists, maps/dictionaries, etc. To be able to also
use dynamic data structures in RPG i created an implementation of a
key/value store, with ordered keys, for RPG (i.e. ILE RPGIV). Like a Java
TreeMap or a PHP associative array. The implementation has a rich API. The
project is on github.com/jerps/RpgMap. Complete docs are at
jerps.nl/RpgMap/Docs/index.html. Using RpgMap is simple. Just install
library RPGMAP (no dependencies), add "bnddir('RPGMAP/RPGMAP')" to the
control spec, and /include the header file (see the docs).

There is no ready compiled library to download, yet, so for now RpgMap
needs to be built from source, which is straightforward. However, a current
ILE RPG compiler is needed. It needs to support the new on-exit opcode
(i.e. 7.2 TR5).

A quick example:

Create a map with 3 key/item pairs, the keys are all dates and the values -
called "items" - are all integers:
map = rm_m(
rm_d( d'2017-07-01' ) : rm_i( 1 ) :
rm_d( d'2017-07-02' ) : rm_i( 2 ) :
rm_d( d'2017-07-03' ) : rm_i( 3 ) );

Insert two key/item pairs into the same "map" (character key, packed
decimal item):
rm_ins(map :
rm_a( 'a' ) : rm_p( 10.20 ) :
rm_a( 'b' ) : rm_p( 20.40 ) );

Iterating through key/item pairs is done using cursors, which support
set-lower-limit, set-greater-than, read, read-previous, etc, semantics.
Iterate through the key/item pairs starting with 'a', and stop until last
pair or when the current key is greater than 'zzz'. Display each key/item
pair.
cur = rm_sll(rm_cur(map):rm_a('a')); // create cursor, set-lower-limit on
'a'
dow rm_rdn(cur:*null:rm_a('zzz')); // read-next (until key greater than
'zzz')
dsply ( rm_a_(rm_key(cur)) + ': ' + %char(rm_p_(rm_itm(cur))) );
enddo;

Dispose "map" (and its contents) and implicitly dispose "cur".
rm_dis(map);
--
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