RPG on other platforms... -- MIDRANGE-L

This is a second attempt to get this message to the group, first one
never showed up...

Yo Guru's...

I have a question

I've been asked by my employer to do some research on the effects of
running an RPG III
program on platforms other than the AS400.

The company has some y2k conversion routines written in COBOL which have

been coded
to be "re-entrant" type programs...

I found this definition of reentrant...

reentrant code

                 A programming routine that can be used by multiple
                 programs simultaneously. It is used in operating
                 systems and other system software as well as in
                 multithreading, where concurrent events are taking
                 place. It is written so that none of its code is
modifiable
                 (no values are changed) and it does not keep track of
                 anything. The calling programs keep track of their own
                 progress (variables, flags, etc.), thus one copy of the

                 reentrant routine can be shared by an any number of
                 users or processes.

                 Conceptually, it is as if several people were each
                 baking a cake from a single copy of a recipe on the
                 wall. Everyone looks at the master recipe, but keeps
                 track of their own progress by jotting down the step
                 they are at on their own scratchpad so they can pick
                 up where they left off. The master recipe is never
                 disturbed.

The routines have also been written in standard RPG III for those
customers who insist on
having no COBOL programs as part of their y2k remediation.
I am told that the RPG programs may also be run on other systems, MVS
was mentioned as a
possibilty.

I have read that all AS400 programs are deemed "reentrant".

So I have two questions then....

1. What are all other possible platforms an RPG III program object can
run on ?
2.  By what method does one code an RPG III program routine to be
reentrant ?

What was done in the COBOL programs to make them reentrant was to define

all program
variables in the Linkage Section, in RPG that would be the *ENTRY
PLIST...

>From what I understand about it no variables can be defined in the calc

specs...the storage
required to hold their values must be defined within the linkage or
PLIST....

I was thinking of specifying a field in FACTOR 1 of the PARM statement
that is also a
data structure field so that the string could be defined in the DS,
similar to COBOL's linkage section ....

Course I won't be doing that at all until I've determined if it is even
necessary...

My whole career has been on the 38 and 400 so I don't get many requests
such as this. : )

I accepted this job cuz i get to wear jeans to work everyday, cool huh ?

Well hey it pays the bills

I'm sure i'll get some interesting responses on this one

TIA



--
Jim W
http://www.netcom.com/~jimwelsh/welcome/welcome.html
mailto:jimwelsh@ix.netcom.com


root


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