Re: New IBM idea - Named Parameters at Program and Procedure Calls

Upvoted, especially because if you're dealing with some older programs with
an infinite number of parameters, it can be very useful.
However, I must say that our rule nowdays is that if the function has more
than three parameters, we use a DS and put everything in there.

Best regards
--
Marco Facchinetti

Mr S.r.l.

Tel. 035 962885
Cel. 393 9620498

Skype: facchinettimarco


Il giorno ven 27 feb 2026 alle ore 18:31 Birgitta Hauser <
[email protected]> ha scritto:

> 1. It works in SQL without any problems (that's why I used the SQL Syntax
> as
> proposal).
> 2. In SQL you can mix the old and new Style, i.e. simply listing the
> parameters or using the argument list and even mixing both.
> So, why not providing the same type of parameter passing to RPG procedures.
>
> Have you ever had to work in a new/old/grown over the time environment
> where
> procedures with x parameters are called as follows:
> Procedure(Fld1, *Blanks, '', '0', *Zeros, '0', '1', *Blanks, *Blanks,
> *Blanks,  *Blanks,   'ABC', Fld7);
>
> Also have you ever been in a situation where you only have to pass the
> first
> and then the 17th parameter?
>
> No Documentation, why code is self-describing!
>
> Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards
>
> Birgitta Hauser
> Modernization – Education – Consulting on IBM i
> Database and Software Architect
> IBM Champion since 2020
>
> "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." (Les
> Brown)
> "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." (Derek Bok)
> "What is worse than training your staff and losing them? Not training them
> and keeping them!"
> "Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they
> don't want to. " (Richard Branson)
> "Learning is experience … everything else is only information!" (Albert
> Einstein)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RPG400-L <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Luca
> Giammattei
> Sent: Friday, 27 February 2026 15:52
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: New IBM idea - Named Parameters at Program and Procedure Calls
>
> Il 27/02/2026 08:44, Birgitta Hauser ha scritto:
> > I have added a new IBM idea, to allow specifying Parameter Names (and
> > assigning the parameter values) at program/procedure calls (in the
> > same way as you can do it with SQL Stored Procedures, UDFs and UDTFs)
> > https://ideas.ibm.com/ideas/IBMI-I-4826
> >
> > Please LIKE if you think it would be helpful/useful
> >
>
> Interesting idea, although one of the things I've always loved about our
> compiler's parameter management style is that it doesn't care about their
> names; what really matters is their nature and order. So I don't see it as
> easy to implement in contexts with legacy code or even a mix of legacy and
> free. Perhaps it should be limited to the fully free language, and even
> here
> I'm not sure. I wouldn't want to be constrained by the parameter name
> rather
> than its nature, even though today, when everyone programs with advanced
> tools like VS Code or RDi (right?), managing these aspects is much simpler.
>
> What if the parameters are also used to pass messages from one program to
> another? Nothing would change, right?
> I'm thinking of the case where pgm1 calls pgm2, passing it two parameters:
> one containing data to be used within pgm2's processing and the other as a
> sort of return code for the outcome of the processing.
>
> something like
> foopgm(parm1:rtncode);
> if rtncode=*blanks;
> //successful execution
> elseif rtncode <> *blanks;
> //something went wrong, let's log the error endif;
> --
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