Exploring WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer V5.1.2

384 Exploring WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer V5.1.2

17.2 WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer VisualAge

Generator compatibility mode

EGL is the replacement for VisualAge Generator V4.5 and includes some syntax primarily to

enable the migration of existing programs to the new development environment. This syntax

is supported in the development environment if the EGL preference VAGCompatibility is

selected or (at generation or debug time) if the build descriptor option VAGCompatibility is

set to yes. The setting of the preference also establishes the default value of the build

descriptor option.

The following statements apply when VisualAge Generator compatibility is in effect:

򐂰 Three otherwise invalid characters (-, @, and #) are valid in identifiers, although the

hyphen (-) and pound sign (#) are each invalid as an initial character in any case.

򐂰 If you refer to a static, single-dimension array of structure items without specifying an

index, the array index defaults to 1.

򐂰 The primitive types NUMC and PACF are available.

򐂰 If you specify an even length for an item of primitive type DECIMAL, EGL increments the

length by one except when the item is used as an SQL host variable.

򐂰 The SQL item property SQLDataCode is available.

򐂰 A set of call options are available in the call statement.

򐂰 The option externallyDefined is in the statements show and transfer.

򐂰 The following system variables are available:

– sysVar.handleSysLibErrors

– sysVar.segmentedMode

򐂰 The following system functions are available:

– sysLib.getVAGSysType

– sysLib.connectionService

򐂰 You cannot use a dynamic array as an argument to a function or to another EGL program.

򐂰 The libraries sysMath and sysStr are automatically available to your code.

򐂰 You can issue a statement of the following form:

display printForm

Where printForm is the name of a print form that is visible to the program.

In that case, display is equivalent to print.

򐂰 The following program properties also support VAG compatibility.

– AllowUnqualifiedItemReferences

– IncludeReferencedFunctions

򐂰 If you set the text-form property value, the content of that property is available in the

program only after the user has returned the form. For this reason, the value that you set

in the program does not need to be valid for the item in the program.