Enhancement for 2E (Come on Broadcom.....)

I've been having a think about a few enhancements for 2E in the hope that the new owners of the products will invest in them. Leaving aside the roadmap ideas and up voted ideas on the idea wall (which need acting upon, especially REST API support), here are a few other ideas for consideration.

Enhancement One

Add an option in Display All Functions to get at the details screen for a given function to show the model object display screen.  Currently you have to do a Usage (wait…) and the do an 8 next to the 000 level function.

I use this screen to see what list an object is associated with etc.

Enhancement Two

The Open Functions screen is really handy but it would be more useful if we can search for a function via its CPF Name.

Enhancement Three

Action Diagram templates to display (fully) what code they are generating.  A good example of this is the RTVOBJ where the return code is set to *Normal at initialisation and automatically set to *Record does not exist in ‘Record Not Found’ user point.  I would be good if this was shown.

There are other examples where the templates could be expanded to show the exact processing to be generated.


I've seen so much bad coding where people are initialising these values not realising what the template generates.  As 2E is supposed to insulate you from the generated code it would make sense to show in AD what actually occurs.... wouldn't it....

Perhaps an expert mode like F21 (WRKACTJOB) to determine how much detail is shown.  I do honestly believe there is a lot of bad code out there due to template knowledge.

Enhancement Four

SQL Statement Support.  Whilst this is already possible for embedded EXCUSRSRC etc, I was thinking more of an interface to do generic SQL processing but use to the 2E method of declaring files and fields etc, have the added bonus of Impact Analysis.

Ability to define an SQL interface using 2E files/Fields and to execute the SQL statement.  This will show up in usages for the files and fields as *SQLSTM

Enhancement Five

License information.  Sure there is a command to show licensing of the product on the box (YDSPLICPRD), but I use it so infrequently I have to look it up almost every time I need it.  Perhaps the model details screens can be extended to have a command key to show the model licensing details.

So come on Broadcom.  Shape your product, prove that you still care.

Thanks for reading.
Lee.