Re: ILE Concepts

There is no absolute reason - but here are a few things to consider:

1) The larger the single module (i.e. source) the greater the temptation to use globals.

2) One source = (generally) one programmer working on it at a time. This losses the opportunity (among other things) to have juniors work on simple fixes in source A while the senior programmers wrestle with the big problems in sources B and C.

3) Large sources present the same old problem that our monolithic RPG/400 programs presented - sorting out the wheat from the chaff. Which bit belongs with/is used by which etc. It is easy to get overwhelmed by volume. When you can see the whole thing in a few pages things get simpler.

4) Placing all functionality in a single source tends to lead to the same old problems that subroutines encouraged. i.e. "Well X gets called in the same timeframe as Y so lets just mush the code together."

There are more but ...


Jon P.

On Nov 1, 2022, at 1:03 PM, Birgitta Hauser <Hauser@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thanks for the answers about my ILE questions ... you mostly confirmed what
I already told them (but ... as said the new guy knows everything better).

... but I have another may be silly question ... but until now nobody could
answer it in a way that I'm satisfied:

Why to bind multiple modules in a single service program?

If the functions/procedures are grouped depending on their functionality
into a source member and almost all functions are exported and the exported
ones are strongly encapsulated and only RPG is used.
Why would we need multiple modules with functions which can be grouped
together in a service program?
If the modules include functions with different functionality why we should
bind them into a single service program?
And if we are working with different programming languages, why not using a
service program for each language.

... activation time cannot be the reason, because the service programs are
bound with deferred. Also before we had deferred the activation time was
very fast, at least at this customer (and he currently has around 120
service programs with around 8000 exported functions in total).
... working with different activation groups may also cause the same service
program to be activated multiple times in the same job. The bigger the
service program the more must be loaded (multiple times) into memory

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards

Birgitta Hauser
Modernization – Education – Consulting on IBM i


"Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." (Les
Brown)
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." (Derek Bok)
"What is worse than training your staff and losing them? Not training them
and keeping them!"
„Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they
don't want to.“ (Richard Branson)


-----Original Message-----
From: RPG400-L <rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Charles
Wilt
Sent: Dienstag, 1. November 2022 16:50
To: RPG programming on IBM i <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: ILE Concepts

On Tue, Nov 1, 2022 at 9:36 AM Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I would also add that I find their current method of one source one
object also rather dated and pointless. But is is sadly a quite widely
used approach.

Agreed, it makes no sense to limit yourself to 1 module per service program.
I've been asking for our home-grown build process to be enhanced for 5+
years now... :(

Charles
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