Re: RFE String interpolation for RPG

[Scott Klement <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

IMHO, you are thinking about this the wrong way, Mark.   It wouldn't 
pass the string containing the symbols to a routine and expect that 
routine to look up the data in the variables.

Instead, it'd just be an alternative syntax for a string expression.   
The RPG compiler would compile this:

myString = `Hello ${YOURNAME}, nice to meet you`;

And it would result in the exact same underlying code that it currently 
generates when it compiles this:

myString = 'Hello ' + %trim(YOURNAME) + ', nice to meet you';

It's just an alternate syntax for the string expression, and would 
compile down to the same underlying code.  The buffer passed to any 
routine that's being called would already have the result of the 
expression in it, so wouldn't need to look anything up in the symbol table.

-SK


On 10/20/2021 1:53 PM, Mark Waterbury wrote:
>   Justin,
> This proposed feature might work okay in any interpreted language like AWK, PHP, Python, PERL, or Javascript, etc., but would be difficult to impossible to implement this in compiled languages like ILE RPG IV, or ILE COBOL or ILE  C/C++ or ILE CL.
> To do so would require that the runtime routines, (e.g. "printf" in the example), would need to be able to access the symbol table of the compiled program.  The symbol table is normally only available at "compile time" unless you compile with "debug" enabled.  To access the debug symbol table would require running the program "in debug mode."  :-/
> I think it would require a huge effort to implement this, for relatively little real benefit.
> Mark
>      On Wednesday, October 20, 2021, 11:27:21 AM EDT, Justin Taylor <jtaylor.0ab@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>   
>   Description:
>
> Add string interpolation support so variables can be inserted into string
> literals without having to use concatenation with + symbols and multiple
> literals.
>
> For example:
>
> apples = 4
>
> bananas = 3
>
> print(f"I have {apples} apples and {bananas} bananas")
>
>
> http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=152890