Re: Upcoming spring 2021 RPG enhancements announced today

I think there is a kind of runtime - there are several service programs with names QRNX* that seem to serve that purpose - QRNXUTIL, for example, includes other bound items, exports include things with names that suggest several of the OPCODEs.

Now I don't know if those are bound early or late, maybe that's not important for now.

Seems to me that a runtime PTF was needed for RPG Open Access.

As to other updates being only compile updates, no, there are lots of them that include runtime updates. On the page cited, 6348421, there is a link to Rpg Cafe -

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/1106229

There are 9 items where it says a PTF has to be installed on any system where the program that uses the new functionality will be run. These go all the way back to 2009.

On 4/17/2021 8:10 AM, midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Naïve, hardly, you raise a good point.

As to your first question, I think you answered it yourself. The compiler
merely turns RPG into executable code. I don't believe there is a classic
"runtime" involved, since ultimately it winds up being some fashion of MI
before the executable is created. Therefore the complier has to come up
with a way to build efficient MI code to execute the instructions. Hence
only patching the complier. Furthermore if IBM wanted to patch more than
the compiler in one PTF they certainly can do that. (and sometimes do...)

Yes, this has been done many, many times in the past going back several
versions if not releases.

-----Original Message-----
From: RPG400-L <rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of John Yeung
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2021 9:29 PM
To: RPG programming on IBM i <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Upcoming spring 2021 RPG enhancements announced today

7.3
ILE RPG runtime: SI76098 - you need this PTF on any 7.3 system where
you run a program with %LOWER, %UPPER, or %SPLIT ILE RPG compiler:
SI76100

Interesting. So you need to patch the runtime as well. Is this normal?
I don't recall other language updates mentioning runtime PTFs, only compiler
PTFs.

Notably, the RPG Cafe entry for the FOR-EACH, IN, %LIST, and %RANGE bundle
doesn't mention any runtime PTFs:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6342821

Those strike me as more substantive changes. If anything, I would have
expected those to require an updated runtime. %LOWER, %UPPER, and %SPLIT
seem like functions that a competent and motivated RPG programmer could
implement themselves, and many *have* implemented their own DIY versions.
Granted, the DIY ones are almost always vastly more rudimentary than these
BIFs (for example, a lot of native-English shops wouldn't bother to handle
accented characters). But conceptually, these still seem very achievable
with the preexisting runtime. Is it naive of me to think that?

John Y.
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