Re: Report API and Catalog

["Roger Harman" <RHarman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I'd really like to see an article or other info on those OO techniques.

> > > nandelin@xxxxxxxxx 06/03/2008 11:34:06 AM >>>
> From: Aaron Bartel
> Does RPG make a good "plumbing" or "framework base" type language?

Service programs make good toolkits.  And after you've written a dozen
or so service programs you're beginning to have a good "framework".

Barbara Morris of the Toronto compiler team also showed me a technique
for implementing object oriented concepts using RPG, which I've used a
lot.

For example, I use a generic service program to support combo boxes. 
The cboNew() procedure returns a pointer to a new instance of a combo
box.  The cboAddItem() procedure adds new items to a combo box.  The
cboToHTML() procedure renders a combo box as an HTML stream.  And so
forth.

While object instantiation is more common in object oriented languages,
it's pretty easy to do in RPG, using data structures with basing
pointers and %alloc(), where data structure subfields are used to store
object properties.

Nathan.