RE: Free Format Procedures

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Michael Ryan
>
> Maybe there's a cool way and I just don't know, so I thought I would
> ask. What's the technique  for using /Free and /End-Free with free
> format in procedures? Like this?
>
>        /End-Free
>      P doProcess       B
>
>      D doProcess       PI
>
>       /Free
>           <free format code>
>       /End-Free
>      P doProcess       E
>
> Or is there a better way? Thanks!

Nope, that's all you can do.  Today, /free only includes C-specs; the P- and
D- specs must be fixed format, and since every procedure needs P- and D-
specs, that means you have a lot of /free and /end-free, especially if you
write lots of little routines.

One shortcut I use (and this is entirely a style thing; some people won't
like it because it's not "self-documenting" enough) is that the procedure
interface (D-spec type PI) and the procedure end (P-spec type E) don't need
to have the procedure name repeated.

>        /End-Free
>      P doProcess       B
>
>      D                 PI
>
>       /Free
>           <free format code>
>       /End-Free
>      P                 E

Thus I only have the procedure name on two lines: the prototype and the
procedure begin.  But that's just me.

Joe