Tweet
Is It Time for Free-Format?
** This thread discusses the article: Is It Time for Free-Format? **
You are right about the subset split - only they should have COMPLETELY moved the Free Form to a new more exciting (and enticing) name. The language split would have allowed them to have 2 distinct and optimised compilers for the 2 languages and not added any unnecessary clutter and complexity to either compiler. I find Free also has a quite messy syntax when compared to other free form languages which is disappointing. Somehow these other languages can get around the line terminator problems and, in the case of VB, they can get around line terminators altogether. This indicates it is still too RPG restricted for the sake of RPG backward compatibility in the compiler.
** This thread discusses the article: Is It Time for Free-Format? **
You are right about the subset split - only they should have COMPLETELY moved the Free Form to a new more exciting (and enticing) name. The language split would have allowed them to have 2 distinct and optimised compilers for the 2 languages and not added any unnecessary clutter and complexity to either compiler. I find Free also has a quite messy syntax when compared to other free form languages which is disappointing. Somehow these other languages can get around the line terminator problems and, in the case of VB, they can get around line terminators altogether. This indicates it is still too RPG restricted for the sake of RPG backward compatibility in the compiler.
Comment