Re: field initializtion

Joe,

As a programmer who has been programming in many flavors of RPG for the past
12 years, I joined this list, as probably many have, to start to get an
understanding of what Java is and how I am going to transition myself from
RPG to Java. My next book to read is George Farr's Java for RPG programmers.
I joined this list for the Java 101 'diatribe'.

Here is a quote from News400.com:

On the languages front, RPG still reigns as the top development
language, used in 69 percent of AS/400 shops, but Cobol (8 percent),
Java (4 percent), Domino (3 percent), and third-party 4GLs (6
percent) also have loyal followings. So far, however, just 1 percent
of shops are using XML

Java only represents 4 percent of the code being generated lately. RPG
accounts for 69 percent. If I am to learn Java I want to see how it relates,
if at all, to RPG. Given the slow progress to ILE, I think the progression
to Java will be even slower unless there is a forum where newbies, such as
myself can as such questions. That's what I thought this forum was all
about.

On a personal note, I find you irritation with newbie questions, a big turn
off. One reason Brad Stone is highly regarded in my book is because he will
still take the time to answer 'newbie' questions. I am quite inclined lately
to just delete messages from Joe Pluta due to their condescending tones and
redundant nature. I suffered through what seemed like hundred of messages
regarding your IP filtering problem. At no point did anyone condemn you for
your questions.

My 2 cents.

Jay Peasley



> MODERATOR NOTE
> --------------
>
> My vision for this list was a way for people to share ideas on using Java
as a component of creating applications for the AS/400, not comparing the
merits of RPG and Java.  I also didn't intend it as a Java 101 tutorial,
which is what it's degraded to of late, with questions being asked that
really have little or nothing to do with writing Java applications.
>
> The questions asked here about initializing variables and returning null
are actually pretty silly.  They're equivalent to asking which indicator to
use for SFLCLR - the answer is whatever is best for your application.
That's my opinion, and I've coded tens of thousands of lines of Java code.
If you'd like to see how things are done, download the Sun source code and
see how they do things.  Or download the IBM toolbox.  Read some books, do
some programming.  Follow their lead or go your own way.  Make mistakes,
live a little.
>
> No, this list was going to be how to actually write working applications
for the AS/400 taking advantage of things like WebSphere and servlets and
JavaServer Pages.  It was not meant to teach how to write trivial classes or
to compare the speed of RPG-CGI with JSP and servlets.  Over the past couple
of months, the character of the list has changed to what is often little
more than a tutorial on basic Java, continuously punctuated by "That's not
what *I* heard", or "Yeah, but I could do it THIS way in RPG."
>
> So be it.  Those of you who want to find out about Java from an RPG
programmer's perspective are welcome to have your day.  The truth is that
Java isn't anything like RPG, and never will be.  If you're a good RPG
programmer, that's absolutely no assurance that you'll be a good Java
programmer.  Good Java is harder to write than good RPG.
>
>
> Aaron wrote:
> "Most of the time all I hear from this list is high-level garble about
morphing or encapsulation or what not.  I like it when the list gets its
hands dirty and figures out code."
>
> "[Brad] has been asking a lot of questions so the RPG world can find out
if Java is a good investment."
>
>
> For anybody who thinks polymorphism is garble, then I can answer that
question without all the wasted time: Java is not a good investment for you.
Period.  Stick with RPG.  It makes no sense to learn Java without learning
OO.
>
> Polymorphism, inheritance and encapsulation are what Java is all about.
If you don't learn those, then Java is a waste of your time.  Getting your
"hands dirty" without at least a basic understanding of those crucial points
leads to bad code and bad habits.  If you're not trying from the get-go to
learn proper OO techniques, then your time is wasted with Java.  It's slow,
cumbersome and syntactically challenging for RPG programmers who just want
to write procedural code.
>
> If, on the other hand, you want to learn how to create object-oriented
systems that promote reuse and scalability and offloading and the
flexibility to meet changing application demands, then by all means learn
OO, then learn Java.
>
> >From now on, I'll not respond to the Java 101 questions or the RPG
comparisons.  Others can carry that ball.  If someone needs help with
WebSphere, or OO, or architectures, I'll chime in.  I apologize for trying
to keep a vision for this list, and perhaps taking it and myself a little
too seriously.
>
> ------------------
> END MODERATOR NOTE
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