Re: Find/Replace in multiple source members

On Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 6:17 PM, Tyler, Matt <matt.tyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Problem with Rexx and other scripting languages is how will they handle source over flow. If you replace in RDi LPEX at least you can get a warning or a compile error and you still have the source local to modify correctly. Same problem mentioned in a thread a little while ago about using SED to do the same thing.

Well, the way I was envisioning things (keep in mind I script almost
exclusively in Python, and have almost no proficiency with Unix-style
shell scripting), it's simple enough to check the resulting line
length, and if it's too long, then "handle it" somehow (such as
wrapping to the next line, including breaking at an appropriate place,
and adding a line continuation character). In my case, I do a good
chunk of my IBM i scripting from my PC through ODBC. It's SQL-centric,
so trying to write something bigger than the SRCDTA field will raise
an exception.

I was actually thinking Rexx could handle the situation approximately
as well as the other "full blown programming languages" used for
scripting. But I don't know Rexx well enough to be sure. I agree with
you that Unix-style commands are often short on robustness. They tend
to be excellent for quick-and-dirty one-liners, but once you need to
express enough logic that you're approaching a proper *program*, the
other languages start to show their value. (I just try to be in the
habit of mentioning plausible options other than Python, to actively
fight against my own biases.)

John Y.