Is there a problem with RECORD LIKE notation

I've been programming in 4gl for four years. I just finished my first consultant position and have started a new job in a new company. This company is against using RECORD LIKE declarations. I can't figure out why. Also they don't want to use .* notation. i.e. DEFINE w_record RECORD LIKE tbl.* SELECT * INTO w_record.* FROM tbl They would rather see: DEFINE w_elm1 CHAR(2), w_elm2 INTEGER SELECT elm1, elm2 INTO w_elm1, w_elm2 FROM tbl I have no idea why. The record version is much better when a table is changed--just recompile and go. According to Informix, it better to select entire rows from tables. Plus it saves time and is less prone to error. Today I had wrote a fetch statement to select some rows out of a table that had over 50 elements. This is insane! Upper management is pushing for this project, and I'm stuck preparing fetch and insert statements. It's not in their standards. Am I missing something? Brian McGinity