Re: X-Spec (was: "RPG isn't cool")

[Carsten Flensburg <novasol@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Doug,
>
> I'm all for using BIFs with new code, but wouldn't it be nice to have
> legacy code nicely formatted too?  To me, it seems "cleaner" to have
> the conversion indent it properly and add EOF(50) or whatever than to
> switch to fixed format for the line.
> 
> What do you think? 

I certainly do agree that it would be a good thing to have an option to
automatically convert to CF, on the other hand I have a strong feeling
that IBM won't build a utility to ease the conversion to the CF-specs.

Depending on the final implementation of the CF-specs it would raise the
many valid concerns that you mention - and as I've experienced during my
RPG/IV-crusade so far, it's not only a question of new functions and
semantics being made available: The whole process of structuring and
modelling an application has changed dramatically with the introduction
ILE and RPG/IV - even the best RPG/IV conversion tools I've seen so far
are only capable of - more or less - replacing code line by line.

I have converted some of our legacy applications to take advantage of
f.x. date arithmetic and performance improvements, but the application
as such is still based on the RPG/400 specifications limitations in
terms of structure and design.

Given the fact that CF-specs doesn't add new functions not available to
C-specs I see them as a tool to further improve flow, structure and
readability in RPG/IV programs - in the case of converting legacy
programs the outcome I think will be closely related to the programs
current state in this respect. Based on this assumption I'd say that -
in this shop - the CF-specs would primarily find their way into new
applications.

What's the state of things in your shop in that respect?

Best regards,
Carsten Flensburg

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