cobol calling an rpg procedure that returns a value

[rick.baird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Sorry for the cross posting to RPG400-l for this question (although, it is
'sorta' RPG related), but the Cobol list doesn't get much traffic these
days.  - Post your replies to COBOL400-L

I've got a monster cobol program that I have to make major mods to, and
what I want to do is externalize certain functions, rather than rewrite the
whole thing.  I want to build a set of procedures in RPG and put them in a
service program, and call them from the existing cobol pgm

I know OPM cobol pretty well, but have not even given the first thought to
ILE concepts in a cobol environement, nor do I think I ever will again
after this special case.

can someone provide me an example of a cobol program calling a procedure
that returns a value?  - or point to a reference in the archives?

are there prototypes involved?  does the CBLLE program get bound to the
service program?  are binding directories used?

I've spent a while looking in the manuals, and well, they aren't very
helpful (probably my fault).  I don't want to spend hours decifering
something I'm only going to use once.

Thanks in advance,

Rick