Re: Level breaks in *FREE FORM ( was EXCEPT & *PSSR)

Hi Vern

lol   Wow.  Never liked /copy.   Scattered the code all over the place.  Only used /copy for very specific and obvious uses.
When paper reports were all the rage, the RPG cycle was magic.
Coders who did not know the cycle had to invent their own way of handling Headers sub headers page overflow and totals,  that code was painful to follow.
Excel changed everything.  Excel using SQL in macros hooked into DB2 through OBDC made the cycle moot.
The auditors hated Excel, so I still produced reports archived into PDF, kept the auditors happy.
So I still had a use for RPG cycle.  Though these days I guess fewer and fewer coders understand the power of the RPG cycle.
What you dont understand you then tend to fear.  I also have a coding fear.
I fear C.  It is so difficult to find coding errors in C.  I code a line of C then compile, that way I know where the error is.

Frank



On 15/02/2023 3:51 pm, Vern Hamberg via RPG400-L wrote:

Hi Frank

I believe you can /copy non-fully-free into a **free source member - now that could __really__ mess up the minds of the people who get to maintain the code later!

Yes, this article says yes - https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/fully-free-form-rpg-new-71-and-72

When you code **FREE in line 1, the entire source member must contain only free-form code. If you need any fixed-form statements, such as a TAG statement, or I specs, you can put them in a /COPY file.

:)
Vern

On 2/14/2023 7:58 PM, Frank Kolmann wrote:

Thought free form did not handle level breaks.
I would be interested how to code L1 and  MR as well in free form.
Before SQL had FULL OUTER JOIN  using L1 and MR was the easiest way I had to join more than 3 files with disparate keys.

And no, never had problems maintaining Level breaks.
Only had problems with people who maintained the code who had no clue how level breaks worked and completely
(bad word here) the logic.

Frank


On 15/02/2023 9:34 am, Hiebert, Chris wrote:

Then came the day you had to maintain them and then wondered why anyone ever used them once RPG FREE was added.

--
Chris Hiebert
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Disclaimer: Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.

From: RPG400-L <rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Frank Kolmann
Sent: Thursday, February 9, 2023 2:12 PM
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: EXCEPT & *PSSR

Ahhh  Level Breaks,  those were the days.  Like anything once you get to

know them you wonder why would you do it any other way.



Frank