Because 4GL is a stack based language, bugs like this one are usually caused by an undefined value for a declared but uninitialized variable. A very similar bug existed in 4gl v7.30 that was fixed in v7.32. Code that worked in v7.30 broke in v7.32 as well as in Aubit4GL, Genero, and Lycia which properly complained about the uninitialized variable. 

So, start by looking for variables that have been declared but not initialized.

An awk script to index variables as they are declared and mark them once initialized, and at the end print out any not marked as initialized. 

Art

Art,

You wrote that Four Js Genero has/had the same bug.

Can you prove this?

Is it about expressions evaluation or about variable initialization?

The Genero runtime system always initializes variables.

See this:

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -Wall xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
myvar =           0
Not 10

As Reuben stated, Genero offers different tools to inspect the .4gl code.

The easiest way to detect coding errors with Genero is to specify the -Wall option, that can be used in conjunction with -Werror to stop compilation on warnings.

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DEFINE unused INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -M -Wall -Werror xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
xx.4gl:3:12:3:17:error:(-6615) The symbol 'unused' is unused.

Seb

Art,

You wrote that Four Js Genero has/had the same bug.

Can you prove this?

Is it about expressions evaluation or about variable initialization?

The Genero runtime system always initializes variables.

See this:

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -Wall xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
myvar =           0
Not 10

As Reuben stated, Genero offers different tools to inspect the .4gl code.

The easiest way to detect coding errors with Genero is to specify the -Wall option, that can be used in conjunction with -Werror to stop compilation on warnings.

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DEFINE unused INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -M -Wall -Werror xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
xx.4gl:3:12:3:17:error:(-6615) The symbol 'unused' is unused.

Seb

Because 4GL is a stack based language, bugs like this one are usually caused by an undefined value for a declared but uninitialized variable. A very similar bug existed in 4gl v7.30 that was fixed in v7.32. Code that worked in v7.30 broke in v7.32 as well as in Aubit4GL, Genero, and Lycia which properly complained about the uninitialized variable. 

So, start by looking for variables that have been declared but not initialized.

An awk script to index variables as they are declared and mark them once initialized, and at the end print out any not marked as initialized. 

Art

Thanks for the clarification, Art.

Sorry if I misunderstood your first reply.

BTW it appears that Informix RDS initializes variables:

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglpc -V
IBM INFORMIX-4GL Version 7.51.FC1    
Pcode Version 732-750

Software Serial Number RDS#N000000
sf@toro:/tmp$ fglpc xx.4gl
sf@toro:/tmp$ fglgo xx.4go
myvar =           0
Not 10

Seb

Art,

You wrote that Four Js Genero has/had the same bug.

Can you prove this?

Is it about expressions evaluation or about variable initialization?

The Genero runtime system always initializes variables.

See this:

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -Wall xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
myvar =           0
Not 10

As Reuben stated, Genero offers different tools to inspect the .4gl code.

The easiest way to detect coding errors with Genero is to specify the -Wall option, that can be used in conjunction with -Werror to stop compilation on warnings.

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DEFINE unused INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -M -Wall -Werror xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
xx.4gl:3:12:3:17:error:(-6615) The symbol 'unused' is unused.

Seb

Thanks for the clarification, Art.

Sorry if I misunderstood your first reply.

BTW it appears that Informix RDS initializes variables:

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglpc -V
IBM INFORMIX-4GL Version 7.51.FC1    
Pcode Version 732-750

Software Serial Number RDS#N000000
sf@toro:/tmp$ fglpc xx.4gl
sf@toro:/tmp$ fglgo xx.4go
myvar =           0
Not 10

Seb

Art,

You wrote that Four Js Genero has/had the same bug.

Can you prove this?

Is it about expressions evaluation or about variable initialization?

The Genero runtime system always initializes variables.

See this:

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -Wall xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
myvar =           0
Not 10

As Reuben stated, Genero offers different tools to inspect the .4gl code.

The easiest way to detect coding errors with Genero is to specify the -Wall option, that can be used in conjunction with -Werror to stop compilation on warnings.

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DEFINE unused INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -M -Wall -Werror xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
xx.4gl:3:12:3:17:error:(-6615) The symbol 'unused' is unused.

Seb

Because 4GL is a stack based language, bugs like this one are usually caused by an undefined value for a declared but uninitialized variable. A very similar bug existed in 4gl v7.30 that was fixed in v7.32. Code that worked in v7.30 broke in v7.32 as well as in Aubit4GL, Genero, and Lycia which properly complained about the uninitialized variable. 

So, start by looking for variables that have been declared but not initialized.

An awk script to index variables as they are declared and mark them once initialized, and at the end print out any not marked as initialized. 

Art

Thanks for the clarification, Art.

Sorry if I misunderstood your first reply.

BTW it appears that Informix RDS initializes variables:

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglpc -V
IBM INFORMIX-4GL Version 7.51.FC1    
Pcode Version 732-750

Software Serial Number RDS#N000000
sf@toro:/tmp$ fglpc xx.4gl
sf@toro:/tmp$ fglgo xx.4go
myvar =           0
Not 10

Seb

Art,

You wrote that Four Js Genero has/had the same bug.

Can you prove this?

Is it about expressions evaluation or about variable initialization?

The Genero runtime system always initializes variables.

See this:

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -Wall xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
myvar =           0
Not 10

As Reuben stated, Genero offers different tools to inspect the .4gl code.

The easiest way to detect coding errors with Genero is to specify the -Wall option, that can be used in conjunction with -Werror to stop compilation on warnings.

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DEFINE unused INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -M -Wall -Werror xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
xx.4gl:3:12:3:17:error:(-6615) The symbol 'unused' is unused.

Seb

Because 4GL is a stack based language, bugs like this one are usually caused by an undefined value for a declared but uninitialized variable. A very similar bug existed in 4gl v7.30 that was fixed in v7.32. Code that worked in v7.30 broke in v7.32 as well as in Aubit4GL, Genero, and Lycia which properly complained about the uninitialized variable. 

So, start by looking for variables that have been declared but not initialized.

An awk script to index variables as they are declared and mark them once initialized, and at the end print out any not marked as initialized. 

Art

Andrew:

Very rudimentary, but here's a first cut:

awk '

      /DEFINE|define/{vars[$2]=0;}
      /INITIALIZE/{vars[$2]=1;}
      END{ for( var in vars ) {
            if (vars[var] == 0){print "Variable " var " not initialized!";}}
      }'  some_code.4gl

It won't deal with multiple variables defined in a single statement. That's a problem if the statement is multi-line since 4GL doesn't have a statement terminator.

$ awk '/DEFINE|define/{vars[$2]=0;}/INITIALIZE/{vars[$2]=1;}END{ for( var in vars ) { if (vars[var] == 0){print "Variable " var " not i
nitialized!";}}}' box_funcs.4gl
Variable script not initialized!
Variable x not initialized!
Variable y not initialized!
Variable warntext not initialized!
Variable ret not initialized!
Variable x, not initialized!

Art

Thanks for the clarification, Art.

Sorry if I misunderstood your first reply.

BTW it appears that Informix RDS initializes variables:

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglpc -V
IBM INFORMIX-4GL Version 7.51.FC1    
Pcode Version 732-750

Software Serial Number RDS#N000000
sf@toro:/tmp$ fglpc xx.4gl
sf@toro:/tmp$ fglgo xx.4go
myvar =           0
Not 10

Seb

Art,

You wrote that Four Js Genero has/had the same bug.

Can you prove this?

Is it about expressions evaluation or about variable initialization?

The Genero runtime system always initializes variables.

See this:

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -Wall xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
myvar =           0
Not 10

As Reuben stated, Genero offers different tools to inspect the .4gl code.

The easiest way to detect coding errors with Genero is to specify the -Wall option, that can be used in conjunction with -Werror to stop compilation on warnings.

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DEFINE unused INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -M -Wall -Werror xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
xx.4gl:3:12:3:17:error:(-6615) The symbol 'unused' is unused.

Seb

Because 4GL is a stack based language, bugs like this one are usually caused by an undefined value for a declared but uninitialized variable. A very similar bug existed in 4gl v7.30 that was fixed in v7.32. Code that worked in v7.30 broke in v7.32 as well as in Aubit4GL, Genero, and Lycia which properly complained about the uninitialized variable. 

So, start by looking for variables that have been declared but not initialized.

An awk script to index variables as they are declared and mark them once initialized, and at the end print out any not marked as initialized. 

Art

Art,

You wrote that Four Js Genero has/had the same bug.

Can you prove this?

Is it about expressions evaluation or about variable initialization?

The Genero runtime system always initializes variables.

See this:

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -Wall xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
myvar =           0
Not 10

As Reuben stated, Genero offers different tools to inspect the .4gl code.

The easiest way to detect coding errors with Genero is to specify the -Wall option, that can be used in conjunction with -Werror to stop compilation on warnings.

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DEFINE unused INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -M -Wall -Werror xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
xx.4gl:3:12:3:17:error:(-6615) The symbol 'unused' is unused.

Seb

Cordialement, Regards,    Khaled Bentebal Directeur Général - ConsultiX Tél: 33 (0) 1 39 12 18 00 Mobile: 33 (0) 6 07 78 41 97 Email: khaled.bentebal@consult-ix.fr Site Web:  www.consult-ix.fr

Art,

You wrote that Four Js Genero has/had the same bug.

Can you prove this?

Is it about expressions evaluation or about variable initialization?

The Genero runtime system always initializes variables.

See this:

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -Wall xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
myvar =           0
Not 10

As Reuben stated, Genero offers different tools to inspect the .4gl code.

The easiest way to detect coding errors with Genero is to specify the -Wall option, that can be used in conjunction with -Werror to stop compilation on warnings.

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DEFINE unused INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -M -Wall -Werror xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
xx.4gl:3:12:3:17:error:(-6615) The symbol 'unused' is unused.

Seb

Because 4GL is a stack based language, bugs like this one are usually caused by an undefined value for a declared but uninitialized variable. A very similar bug existed in 4gl v7.30 that was fixed in v7.32. Code that worked in v7.30 broke in v7.32 as well as in Aubit4GL, Genero, and Lycia which properly complained about the uninitialized variable. 

So, start by looking for variables that have been declared but not initialized.

An awk script to index variables as they are declared and mark them once initialized, and at the end print out any not marked as initialized. 

Art

Please be aware that in IBM 4gl you can use the c4gl -initvar to have all declared variables initialized just like they are in r4gl(RDS).  I believe this option is missing from the manual but is shown when you run c4gl -help.

Additionally, you can use the c4gl -anyerr to catch unusual errors that might get skipped over.  Just be aware that it changes the status variable which can be an issue when there is an operation between a sql command and the test of status for the sql result.

Cordialement, Regards,    Khaled Bentebal Directeur Général - ConsultiX Tél: 33 (0) 1 39 12 18 00 Mobile: 33 (0) 6 07 78 41 97 Email: khaled.bentebal@consult-ix.fr Site Web:  www.consult-ix.fr

Art,

You wrote that Four Js Genero has/had the same bug.

Can you prove this?

Is it about expressions evaluation or about variable initialization?

The Genero runtime system always initializes variables.

See this:

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -Wall xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
myvar =           0
Not 10

As Reuben stated, Genero offers different tools to inspect the .4gl code.

The easiest way to detect coding errors with Genero is to specify the -Wall option, that can be used in conjunction with -Werror to stop compilation on warnings.

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DEFINE unused INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -M -Wall -Werror xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
xx.4gl:3:12:3:17:error:(-6615) The symbol 'unused' is unused.

Seb

Because 4GL is a stack based language, bugs like this one are usually caused by an undefined value for a declared but uninitialized variable. A very similar bug existed in 4gl v7.30 that was fixed in v7.32. Code that worked in v7.30 broke in v7.32 as well as in Aubit4GL, Genero, and Lycia which properly complained about the uninitialized variable. 

So, start by looking for variables that have been declared but not initialized.

An awk script to index variables as they are declared and mark them once initialized, and at the end print out any not marked as initialized. 

Art

Cordialement, Regards,    Khaled Bentebal Directeur Général - ConsultiX Tél: 33 (0) 1 39 12 18 00 Mobile: 33 (0) 6 07 78 41 97 Email: khaled.bentebal@consult-ix.fr Site Web:  www.consult-ix.fr

Art,

You wrote that Four Js Genero has/had the same bug.

Can you prove this?

Is it about expressions evaluation or about variable initialization?

The Genero runtime system always initializes variables.

See this:

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -Wall xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
myvar =           0
Not 10

As Reuben stated, Genero offers different tools to inspect the .4gl code.

The easiest way to detect coding errors with Genero is to specify the -Wall option, that can be used in conjunction with -Werror to stop compilation on warnings.

sf@toro:/tmp$ cat xx.4gl
MAIN
    DEFINE myvar INTEGER
    DEFINE unused INTEGER
    DISPLAY "myvar = ", myvar
    IF NOT(myvar = 10) THEN
       DISPLAY "Not 10"
    ELSE
       DISPLAY "It is 10"
    END IF
END MAIN

sf@toro:/tmp$ fglcomp -M -Wall -Werror xx.4gl && fglrun xx.42m
xx.4gl:3:12:3:17:error:(-6615) The symbol 'unused' is unused.

Seb

Because 4GL is a stack based language, bugs like this one are usually caused by an undefined value for a declared but uninitialized variable. A very similar bug existed in 4gl v7.30 that was fixed in v7.32. Code that worked in v7.30 broke in v7.32 as well as in Aubit4GL, Genero, and Lycia which properly complained about the uninitialized variable. 

So, start by looking for variables that have been declared but not initialized.

An awk script to index variables as they are declared and mark them once initialized, and at the end print out any not marked as initialized. 

Art