RE: To ride The Cycle or not to ride (was Re: INZSR weirdness)

["Lapeyre, Francis" <FLAPEYRE@xxxxxxxx>]

Shouldn't that be:


D FirstRun                    s                 n            INZ(*ON)

 /free
   If FirstRun;
     // Do INZSR crap here
    FirstRun = *off;
   EndIf;

   Return;
/end-free

Francis Lapeyre
IS Dept. Programmer/Analyst
Stewart Enterprises, Inc.
E-mail: flapeyre@xxxxxxxx 



-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Holden Tommy
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 9:42 AM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: RE: To ride The Cycle or not to ride (was Re: INZSR weirdness)

1)  
D FirstRun                    s                 n            INZ(*ON)

 /free
   If FirstRun;
     // Do INZSR crap here
    EndIf;

   Return;
/end-free

2) if you are not using a primary file then you are NOT using the logic
cycle, you are controlling the file I/O in your code.

3) RPG IS my primary programming language, while I also use CL, VB, light
java, etc.  Just because it's there doesn't mean you have to use it...<tic> 


Thanks,
Tommy Holden


-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces+tommy.holden=hcahealthcare.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces+tommy.holden=hcahealthcare.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of James H H Lampert
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 9:33 AM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: To ride The Cycle or not to ride (was Re: INZSR weirdness)

"Holden Tommy" wrote:
. . .
> Since we should all be avoiding the logic cycle (IMO) *INZSR is a 
> relic that isn't necessary.
. . .

In the first place, one of the major features of OS/400 is the ability to
return from a called program without destroying its activation, then quickly
and with little cost call it again. But such a program will almost certainly
have costly initializations that need to be done on the first call, but
should not (in some cases MUST not) be done again. How do you propose to do
this without an INZSR?

In the second place, using The Cycle does not in any way require the use of
a primary file, nor does it in any way preclude the exclusive use of full
procedural files.

In the third place, if you believe you should avoid The Cycle at all costs,
then I say you should avoid RPG at all costs. If AS/400 programmers had
always used languages other than RPG for programs that made no use of The
Cycle, then we'd probably have a lot more languages on the AS/400. I am sick
and tired of people learning exactly one programming language, and calling
themselves programmers. 
And if you perchance have a University degree in computer science, but
haven't managed to learn more than one programming language, you ought to go
to the computer science department of your alma mater, and demand a refund
for your tuition, because they never should have allowed you to become so
overspecialized.

Finally, I'm not opposed to the evolution of programming languages, but I AM
opposed to taking languages that have evolved into something else beyond
recognition, losing the distinguishing characteristics of their parent
languages, and calling them by the names of parent languages they evolved
from, but are no longer recognizable as. For example, I refuse to call any
of the QBASICs or TBASICs or VBASICs "BASIC," because they have less in
common with BASIC (whether you're talking Old Dartmouth, VS-BASIC, or
Applesloth, or GW-BASIC) than they have with PL/I. 
Likewise, "RPG/Free" ought to be called something completely different from
RPG, because it, too, has more in common with PL/I than with RPG. (Actually,
in the latter case, as far as I'm concerned, it would have been a better use
of resources for IBM to have turned OPM PL/I into a fully-supported
ILE-based full implementation of the language, than to have done as they
did, and stuck bits and pieces of it into RPG and called it "/Free.") When
Sun decided to develop a platform-independent, web-safe language derived
from C++, they did NOT call it 
C++-- (although the wags did); they called it something
completely different (albeit something that showed the world they were
drinking entirely too much coffee): They called it Java.

--
JHHL
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