Usefulness of O-specs (Re: RPG Cycle)

["George Kinney" <GKinney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> from: James Lampert <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Trevor Perry wrote:
> > How can you claim to be a modern language if you are using O-specs? Making
> > your file processes an integral part of your application program is a step
> > backwards.
> If you had actually read the message to which you were responding, you 
> would have noticed that I said, in so many words, that I have never been 
> able to make constructive use of O-specs.

We use o-specs all the time to produce the ZPL output for our Zebra label printers, just override QPRINT with the RMTOUTQ for the printer and then...

...
     FQPRINT    O    F  132        PRINTER USROPN
     DLBLQTY           S              3  0 INZ(001)
...  Some code ...
     C                   EVAL      LBLQTY = 100
     C                   OPEN      QPRINT
     C                   EXCEPT    LBLQ
     C                   CLOSE     QPRINT
...  More and more code ...
     OQPRINT    E            LBLQ
     O                                              '~CC¬'
     O                                              '¬XA'
     OQPRINT    E            LBLQ
     O                                              '¬LH10,10'
     O                                              '¬PQ'
     O                       LBLQTY
     O                                              '¬BY3,3,100'
...  Some actual label formatting in here ...
     OQPRINT    E            LBLQ
     O                                              '¬XZ'

...  Plenty useful, and very simple.