RE: program design problem

[David FOXWELL <David.FOXWELL@xxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Message d'origine-----
> [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] De la part de Mark S. Waterbury
> Objet : Re: program design problem
>
> Passing these pointers as arguments ... but, pointers to 
> what, exactly? 
> Data structures?  Why not just pass the data structures 
> directly? 

The router would have no information about the data structures being passed.
 
> Also, what purpose or benefit does having this router program 
> achieve?  
> Why not just directly call these programs?

Ok, here goes, I'm going to get slammed.
Please note that I'm only a humble programmer and the design decision is not mine.

The calling programs are client management programs that need to run other programs with a different library list, then return to their initial state, then recall the same program with a different library list.

Eg Pgm A running with liblst A calls Pgm B which runs with liblst determined par pgmA, ie, variable.

To solve this problem, the decision was to call a router that would set up the library list and call a generic program that would run in a named activation group for pgm B.

So pgmA may be calling pgmB which may run in any of several activation groups, all active until pgmA ends.

If pgmA needs to pass parameters to pgmB, it defines these parameters in a DS and passes a pointer to the DS to the router. PgmB copies the DS definition from pgmA. If there was a way of passing the DS directly, then I don't know it.

Thanks for taking the time.

PS Scott, If you're reading I'd love to know how you'd have got round this problem.