Re: [WDSCI-L] Error in WDSC conversion to /FREE?

[Reeve <rfritchman@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael, it doesn't matter if it's good or not: it's been working as
advertised for over 20 years.

If it was "bad", the Compiler People could have added compiler logic
to disallow it (a snide remark about Programming Police has been
deleted).  In the past, indicators were scare commodities and often
served multiple uses (especially in array lookup, but for some
mysterious reason, the WDSC utility doesn't convert LOOKUP, so it
doesn't matter).

The question is if the code generated by the WDSC utility will work
the same as the fixed-format code.  The answer is it doesn't, and IBM
does not provide advice, disclaimers, or warnings that the converted
code might not work the same as the original code.  There's an implied
warranty when you provide a tool like this and there is the potential
of a very serious product liability issue.  Would you want your
iSeries banking software vendor to use this utility?  Why would I use
it knowing I'll have to review every line of code for errors?

I work to improve it my coding style on a daily basis; I'll bet all of
us wince when we look at code from 20 years ago.  But style is a
subset of standards, and SLFEND is controlled by *IN35 in all 400 of
my subfile programs.

-reeve


On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 11:11:59 -0500, MichaelQuigley@xxxxxxxxxx
<MichaelQuigley@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I think the real issue here is that WDSc is only trying to provide a tool
> to help convert fixed-format code to free-form.  I don't think anyone has
> ever tried to advertise it as a magic wand.
> 
> I agree that the original fixed-format code works, but is it really a good
> programming style?  Using the same indicator for multiple purposes makes
> different conditions indistinguishable.
> 
> Michael Quigley
> AS/400 Programming Coordinator
> The Way International
> www.TheWay.org
> 
> Original message:
> ------------------------------
> 
> date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 12:10:46 -0800
> from: Reeve <rfritchman@xxxxxxxxx>
> subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] Error in WDSC conversion to /FREE?
> 
> The problem is that the code created by the conversion utility doesn't
> work like the fixed-format code.  In fixed-format RPG, having the same
> indicator in both positions "works".  I think this is a WDSCi problem
> and not an RPG problem.
> 
> -reeve
> 
> On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 14:45:35 -0500, Wilt, Charles <CWilt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> > Not really, it just took a minute...see my second post.  ;-)
> >
> > Looking at this, I have to wonder how the original code would work.
> >
> > Is there any documentation on how RPG handles having the same indicator
> used for ERROR and EOF on the READC or any other op-code?
>           .          .          .
>           .          .          .          .          .          .
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