Re: will v6r1 RPG support main procedure recursion?

[Jerry Adams <jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Enough grousing. 

One can always enter a requirement.  If you are a member of COMMON, just 
go to www.common.org.  Under the "Members Only" tab select the 
'Requirements' option.

Or you can go to http://isociety.common.org/ and select the 
'Requirements' option on the menu bar.

You do *not* have to be a member of COMMON, but you do have to be 
registered at iSociety (it's free) in order to view and enter requirements.

These requirements are reviewed by a committee of users and by IBM three 
or four times a year.

And there's always Open-Mike at Opening Session of the COMMON Conference.

	* Jerry C. Adams
*IBM System i Programmer/Analyst
B&W Wholesale Distributors, Inc.* *
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Steve Richter wrote:
> On 10/9/07, James Lampert <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>   
> > Actually, when you take out the very few things unique to RPG, like The
> > Cycle, you end up with just another language, with very little to
> > distinguish it from any number of other programming languages.
> >
> > There are a bunch of things in RPG that, by being rigid, inflexible,
> > "unitaskers" (as Alton Brown might put it), qualify as "legacy crap." A
> > number of them only have meaning in Cycle programs. But The Cycle, as a
> > thing in itself, is not one of them. In fact, I'd say there are more
> > UNconventional ways to use The Cycle constructively than there are
> > conventional ways, and as long as you understand the basic premise that
> > an RPG program lives inside a "DO UNTIL LR" loop, they're perfectly
> > understandable and maintainable.
> >
> > Indeed, of the items you listed, Indicators are the only one that seems
> > like a maintenance nightmare,
> >     
>
> they are global variables. therein lies the problem. my opinion of why
> legacy code is so unworkable was formed last year working on a cobol
> application.  the heavy use of data struct redefines and performs that
> used globals to "pass" arguments to the procedures made the code
> unworkable.  The RPG equivalent is the subrtn and data structs with
> sub fields that overlay each other. RPG does not redefine to the
> degree COBOL does, but the subrtn is pretty bad.
>
> -Steve
>