Re: Right side comments

["Simon Coulter" <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

m
Hello Buck,

I wrote a utility many years ago to go through RPG III code and do exactly 
what you suggested -- mapping the END statement to the appropriate IF or DO 
clause.  It would build an end comment from the appropriate begin statement.  
For example;

B1   C           EXIT      DOUEQ$YES                       
B2   C           LSTCNT    IFGT *ZERO                      
B3   C           VIEW      IFEQ 1                          
X3   C                     ELSE                            
E3   C                     END                             VIEW = 1
X2   C                     ELSE                            
E2   C                     END                             LSTCNT > *ZERO
E1   C                     END                             EXIT U= $YES

(It also highlighted comments, flagged entry and exit points, underlined 
subroutine names, inserted the B1, X1, and E1 markers, changed END 
statements to the proper ENDIF, ENDDO, etc, flagged mismatched, extra, or 
missing END statements, and other stuff.)

For RPG III and even RPG/400 the comment area could be put to good 
use (but not for writing comments, 20 bytes is too small an area to do much 
other than reiterate the code -- although in extracting the above example I 
found some old code of mine where I had actually made what I consider 
exeptionally good use of the right-hand comments :).  As a friend of mine 
says:

        "Comments should illuminate, not reiterate"

With RPG IV there is no need at all for right-hand comments especially if 
the program is a new one.  It might be possible to argue a case for 
right-hand comments when converting from RPG III but I'm of the firm opinion 
that if you convert code to RPG IV then you should convert it properly 
rather than a half-baked RPG III style in RPG IV specifications.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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