Reader Feedback and Insights: We Want More RPG

Hey, Ted:

It was good to see some RPG stuff in Midrange Guru. It's been absent lately. from my experience, there's still more old code out there than new.

I've done much to modernize our old code. It's native now. I've written programs to change programs--for instance, moving user messages from compile-time arrays to message subfiles--but there are still lots of indicators! Even though my files are externally defined, the old code refers to them internally. Changing that would be overwhelming.

The one nice thing, though, is that in native mode, I can increase the record length of a file without changing all the F specs. The system doesn't care that this 500-byte file is described as 450 in a program, so long as that program doesn't use the locations above 450. I think this is better than programs using the external descriptions, which have to be recompiled. Funny, isn't it?

I write plenty of ILE RPG with subprocedures and service programs, to name a few, every chance I get, and I've converted plenty of old S/36 stuff to ILE as well, but from where I stand, the legacy code is here to stay.

-- John

Sponsored By ADVANCED SYSTEMS CONCEPTS

Business Analytics - Practical - - Cost Effective - - Easy to Deploy - SEQUEL FYI User Quote: "I love SEQUEL FYI because it lets me look at the data any way I need to see it, instantly. This is the easiest tool to manage complex product relationships that I have ever seen." SEQUEL FYI offers outstanding OLAP business intelligence functionality for a fraction of the cost of comparable solutions. Read More > View Streaming Video