A Bevy of BIFs: %SCAN and %CHECK
by Jon Paris

From recent questions on Internet lists, and from one-on-one discussions with RPG programmers, it seems that many are confused about the usage and operation of a number of built-in functions (BIFs). In particular the BIFs %XLATE, %REPLACE, %SCAN, and %CHECK seem to cause a lot of confusion. In this tip, I focus on %CHECK and %SCAN. I'll look at the other misunderstood pair, XLATE and REPLACE, in a future tip. READ MORE >

Easily Avoid a Common Data Structure Error
by Ted Holt

A shop with which I'm acquainted had an undesirable experience recently. A program that, to my understanding, had been working properly, ended abnormally. The error could have easily been avoided, had the programmer followed one simple rule of thumb. READ MORE >