Re: File with LikeRec Data-Structure Template -vs- ExtName Data-Structure Template

That's a great explanation. Thanks, Jon!

Are you also able to verify that, when using the extName keyword, a change
to the physical file would not require a re-compile of the program, unless
the change was to a field explicitly referred to?

Finally, I do still wonder why the end-ds is required for an extName
data-structure, but not a likeRec data-structure. It's not straight
forward what the issue is when encountered in RDi (when you leave out the
end-ds), so it took me a bit to even realize that's what was causing a
problem. I also had to account for extName template not being qualified (I
expected the template keyword to make the data-structure qualified
automatically) as opposed to the likeRec template being qualified by
default (a result of the likeRec keyword), but that's just a nitpick.



On Wed, Oct 16, 2019 at 10:11 AM Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I can't think of any real advantage to using the file approach - unless
you plan on passing the file as a parm - which is primarily what templated
files are for.

The ExtName approach also has the advantage that additional fields and/or
redefinitions can be added to the DS. A LikeRec cannot be used in that way.