Code AL

Benefits of Development in AL

It is no surprise. A couple of years ago Microsoft announced it on the official Dynamics 365 Business Central roadmap. The C/AL programming language disappears and can no longer be used in new versions of the product that will be released in 2020.

Business Central c/al

In Triangle, we have prepared ourselves consciously to face this change with tranquility and for more than a year we have programmed using the AL language and Visual Studio Code.

What benefits does Development in AL language provide?

First of all, we can highlight that it provides us with a better code structure. For example, all translations are grouped in the same file and thus simplify the location within the code.

Before to indicate the translation of a text, you should indicate it in the same place where that text was defined. Now we have the ability to define the text in another language and its corresponding translation will be found in the translation file. In addition, we will find a file for each language we want to translate.

Snippets

Another point to note is that each developer can program their own snippets . A snippet is a term used in programming to refer to small parts of the source code that are reusable. In this way, the programmer does not need to develop the code every time from 0 but can insert it with some ease, with the corresponding time savings.

By means of snippets the writing of the code is facilitated since, simply by entering a word, the AL language suggests the snippet that you are looking for automatically.

In this line, it should be noted that in AL programming , as is the case in most programming languages ​​and codes, the language automatically recognizes objects when you are starting to type the word and from this mode simplifies development and streamlines at the same time . This characteristic, which may seem fundamental, did not exist in the C/AL language, so it was more cumbersome to identify which field or variable we wanted to use.

Finally, we can point out that if we are wrong in the syntax or we are using some incorrect variable, we will be shown a small informative text in which it is detailed because the code is failing We have written.

“The development in AL that is still one of the many languages ​​that exist, but I highlight the extension programming, that is, this new language collects all the necessary code to develop a new functionality more clustered than the old C/AL language, where you could find lines of code in countless objects.”  Genis Bosch


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