Re: Debug in WDSC -- WDSCI-L

Hi Bill,

> I have not yet changed my mind on the quality and

performance of this tool. I can still work 20 times

> faster in SEU, SDA and RLU.

I've been an RPG guy since the punched card days. Depending on whatyou're trying to do, SEU is a lot faster than WDSCi. On the other hand,there are things that SEU simply cannot do at all, like run a simplemacro (I used to write ReXX macros under MVS and never understood whymidrange systems couldn't do that.)

I have been fighting RSE off and on for about 6 months and
still find it more difficult than it should be.  The tool I use should
not be more complicated than the programs I write.

My own experience is somewhat similar, albeit older. I used Code/400and before that, Brief. The green screen editors are so darned simple,they are pretty easy to understand and use. SEU basically can't do evenas much as Windows Notepad, so the learning curve is measured in minutes.

WDSCi is very complex. There's a lot of stuff in there, and it isn'talways easy to get at. Contrary to the IBM marketing, I don'tpersonally find the colour coding all that helpful when editing RPG.Likewise, the web bells and whistles are useless to me. All I need is agood RPG and DDS editor (I go back so far that I don't use RLU, and onlyoccasionally used SDA, preferring to lay my DDS out with the editor.)

Now that you know a little about my background, you should know that Ihave used SEU less than a dozen times in the past 6 months. I use WDSCifor almost all my editing needs. I fire it up in the morning and itruns all day. I haven't had a crash since V4.

I personally like the idea that I can have multiple windows open on thesame member, or on DDS and the matching RPG at the same time. I likethe ability to cut/paste more than 20 lines of code at a pop. I adoreregular expressions in a search, and could not live without that. Ilike that I can edit XML opff the IFS (yeah, for green screen use!)alongside the RPG that is going to process it.

WDSCi is more work than SEU, no doubt. I find that it's worth it. Ihad my own 'Aha!' experience when I stopped trying to make Brief, Codeand Lpex do the same thing that SEU did. Once I started to use Lpex onits own merits (not as a grey-screen SEU) I made progress. I'd say thatwas _my_ personal stumbling block to learning Code and Lpex. Lpex isn'tperfect, but I personally believe it is superior to SEU, even though SEUis faster at many RPG tasks.

Don't know how other people made the transition, but I hope this notehelps you a bit.

  --buck