Re: TAB01/TAB02 to "D" spec.s

[Barbara Morris <bmorris@xxxxxxxxxx>]

dickjaz@xxxxxxx wrote:
> I am helping a customer "modernize" their RPG II code.  They use a
> lot of TAB01/TAB02 type look ups.  ...
> ...  I would like to get rid of the '**' loads. 

Dick, I assume you want to keep them as tables.

Rather than just use the ** form for the CTDATA, use this form:
  **CTDATA TAB01
That gives you more control over which data goes with which table or 
array.  If you use just **, you have to ensure that your tables and 
arrays never get out of the original order in the D specs.

The alternative to the ** loads is to use FROMFILE.  In some ways 
FROMFILE _could_ be considered more modern, since it allows you to 
dynamically control the content of the table elements; that could be 
useful if you wanted to pick up different versions of the tables say for 
different translations of the text.  But using FROMFILE doesn't really 
allow for any other flexibility such as the number of elements, and it 
adds a bit of complexity since there is one more file that has to be 
available at runtime.