Comments for RPG and Programming

Comment on Bugged by the Debugger- and Larger Issues by Barbara Morris

Barbara Morris — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:30:10 +0000

Hi Curtis, I’m a bit late here, but I just ran across your blog. This behaviour isn’t aimed at optimizing the debugger, it’s aimed at optimizing the RPG program. If a field isn’t used in the program, the compiler thinks there’s no point in loading it from the input buffer.

The RPG/400 compiler didn’t even generate those fields into the program. But for some reason, the ILE RPG compiler generates the fields (by default), and just doesn’t load them during I specs. (Now you can code OPTION(*NOUNREF) to get the ILE RPG compiler to handle unreferenced fields like the RPG/400 compiler does.) Either way, it’s going to give you a frustrating debugging experience, but I think the RPG/400 way is slightly less mysterious. When the field is not even available in the debugger, you don’t have to spend any time trying to figure out how if there’s some logic error that caused it to be blank.

By the way, the ILE RPG Programmer’s Guide does attempt to document this situation. There’s a section called “Unexpected Results when Evaluating Variables” http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v7r1m0/topic/rzasc/sc092507305.htm#wq488.

Comment on The Programmer and the Mailbox by Mary R

Mary R — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:34:18 +0000

It’s all in the details - right? But, what is the point to have boxes on the street if they aren’t going to deliver by vehicle? And why are the “rules” different for different cities? We actually have 2 boxes on our curb because they deliver by car and only want to drive down one side of the street. So if your neighbor doesn’t care about how their box looks (and why would they - it isn’t on their property) you may end up mowing around someone else’s mess.

Comment on The Programmer and the Mailbox by Jenny

Jenny — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 04:02:21 +0000

I can relate! Scott’s quest sometimes for absolute detail when it comes to manual tasks around the house slows him down immensely! He tends to not want to complete any task if he can’t do it exactly right.

Comment on The Real World by Jennifer Moore

Jennifer Moore — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:48:40 +0000

I think you should write some more, Dad. I have gone back through all of your posts and am truly and utterly fascinated. I wish I would have done a little more with that programming bug that I had, like you did.

Comment on The Last GOTO by Buck

Buck — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:00:05 +0000

I think you nailed it. RPG = Midrange-only. IBM is working furiously to turn their hardware and software into commodities so they can compete on (low) price. They are betting the bank on services. That leaves niche markets like us as stranded as Smalltalk, OS/2 and Officevision.

Comment on RPG In Isolation by Buck

Buck — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:08:29 +0000

We’re moving (however slowly) to RPG IV / ILE. I write stored procedures that the webby people can call to reach out and touch our database without them having to become intimate with it. Being able to do it in RPG is very helpful, as the debugging is easy to work with.

Comment on RPG In Isolation by Susan

Susan — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:38:53 +0000

So (anybody!) if you were currently (Jan.2011) on a 10-year-old AS/400 and almost all your applications were written decades ago in RPGII and OCL, and you were probably going to move to a new box in the near future, what language would you pick to gradually migrate the legacy apps to? What is the “best” technology to be on? What has the strongest pool of available programmers?

RPG IV?
RPG ILE?
SQL & PHP?
.NET ?

There are few folks available now with RPGII skills, and my client really *must* get more up-to-date before I get hit by a bus! With their options wide open, I’m not really sure what to advise them.

Comment on I Saw the Light by Brian May

Brian May — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:18:10 +0000

I prefer a signature of ‘SRVPGMNAMEV99′ where the ‘V99′ is used when I want to change the interface of one of the procedures. I don’t do it very often at all, but when I do, it gives me a simple way force a signature violation if something doesn’t get recompiled for whatever reason.

Comment on I Saw the Light by Buck

Buck — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:28:45 +0000

Yes, the client programs can be compiled with PDM option 14 if you have H BNDDIR(…) which was imperative for me because not everyone here (or my prior employer) is familiar with service programs, etc. You’ll still have to do a two step to create the service program. I strongly advise two things:
1) Create a MAKE-like CL program to re-create the service program
2) Use a simple binder language signature of your own creation, like SIGNATURE(’MYCOMPANY’)

Comment on Bugged by the Debugger- and Larger Issues by Duke Normandin

Duke Normandin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 21:39:59 +0000

Stumbled upon your blog, searching for an Oberon-2 tutorial. I’m 63, and teaching myself another computer language. How’s *your* journey with Oberon-2 coming along?

I’m in the same boat as you - I *need* a project to sustain my interest in learning a language - learning *anything* actually. The desire to crank out interactive web-pages motivated me to learn Perl4 and then PHP and MySQL. I’m still searching for an Oberon-2 goal.

Enjoyed your blog!
–
Duke