RPGLEDOC

Document Procedure and Program Calls

Modern RPG applications consist of a multitude of subprocedures and programs — a lot more than there were in the traditional RPG applications. Although modern tools, such as the outline view in Remote System Explorer, can provide me with a list of callable subprocedures and programs, they cannot tell me exactly what the subprocedure/program does, what the possible values are for parameters or what the possible return values are.

Which leads to that terrible four lettered word — documentation. Yes, it all has to be documented and we all know how much RPG programmers like to write documentation.

This problem has already been tackled in Java, PHP and other languages. JavaDoc and PHPDoc offer a facility whereby programmers put special comments in their code and a command is used to scan the code and generate documentation web pages from the comments.

Can the JavaDoc approach be used in RPG? By applying a few terms and conditions - of course it can.

RPGLEDOC comes in two parts — a set of programs to generate the RPGLEDOC documentation and examples of how you might view the contents of the documentation using either CGIDEV2 or PHP.

Each of the downloads is a zip file containing a directory. Each directory contains a READ_ME document which contains details on how to install and use the programs

• Download RPGLEDOC Documentation Generator
• Download RPGLEDOC Documentation Viewers

Please note that these are not supported products - the source of the programs is included and you are free to chop and change them as you wish (see standard disclaimer below). Of course, if you come across any bugs please let us know.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.