Re: enhancement idea for ILE RPG IV free-form

[Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 22-May-09, at 3:06 PM, rpg400-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Instead of having to code /free and /end-free, to drop into free form
> and back out again, why not just let the compiler make the decision,  
> on
> a line-by-line basis, depending on the presence of the "C" in the  
> column
> (for C-specs)? If the "C" is there, treat the line as fixed format. If
> there is a blank in that column, then we are in /free format.

I'm very much in favor Mark and proposed it a while back.  It is  
already on the "to-do" list and I thought there was already a DCR on  
this but I may be wrong - one more won't hurt anyway!

Barbara was asked about this at our recent Summit event in Orlando and  
if I recall correctly it is not a problem doing it in the RPG compiler  
- it is getting it into plan for all the other components that  
currently rely on the /Free tags to switch mode.  If it was just RPG  
it would have happened by now.

I did suggest to Barbara that maybe they should consider adding an  
option to allow it and then you'd only have to use them if you needed  
one of the tools that depend on it.  Trouble is SQL is one of them  
apparently and that would cause a big gap.

It really is frustrating though - particularly if you use a lot of  
subprocedures!

Jon Paris

www.Partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com