RE: IBM pushing Java

Thought I'd slip in a few petty, self serving comments in response to the
following.<g> I've edited out portions of John's post and concentrated
mostly on the ad hominem (haven't had a chance to use that phrase since
college) stuff.   

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Carr [mailto:74711.77@compuserve.com]
> Sent: Friday, March 19, 1999 8:08 PM
> To: Midrange-L
> Subject: RE: IBM pushing Java
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> RE:   RE: IBM pushing Java
> 
> >From: Joel Fritz <JFritz@sharperimage.com>
> >
> >At a COMMON workshop on JAVA, George Farr, who works on RPG for IBM,
> >mentioned as an aside something to the effect that RPG would 
> be around until
> >at least 2015.
> 
> 
> What George meant was that millions of lines of existing code 
> will not disappear over night.  Anyone who has just gone thru the Y2K 
> conversion will tell you how long some programs hang around.

Gee, that's exactly what I said.  

> 
> Is Java going to replace RPG?   I doubt any major software vendor is 
> writing any major system in RPG.  (BTW I'm an 18 year RPG vet)  
>
Are there any major AS/400 software vendors writing major systems in JAVA.
I don't know, maybe there are.
 
> Is IBM dropping support or enhancements?  Are you nuts?  It 
> is still being
> enhanced. Yes.  If you caught George's session( I was in the 
> front row) you
> know some of the future enhancements we'll be seeing.  
> But what else can they do to the language to enhance it futher?
> Within the frameworks of how RPG works that is.  
> 
I was in the third row.  I'm excited about the coming enhancements.  I could
fill up a lot of space with other things I'd like to see added.

> If you're not using the new functions of the RPGIV 
> language(built-in's 
> using API's,  Procedures, etc) and are still only using RPGIII
> I for the life of me don't know why.   If you're an RPG person
> You should learn Functions, Built-ins, Procedures, API calls, etc.
> It will help you make the mental upgrade needed for Java or anything
> else.
> 
I've been using RPGIV for a couple of years.  Would have done it sooner if
my employer had upgraded the OS sooner.  I have a lot of trouble doing
maintenance on RPG Classic now.

> Learn Java?,  Yes.  You WILL be buying packages written in it soon. 
> So it will be on your box.   
> 

I'm learning JAVA now.  It's fun and very much like C++.

> How are you going to make the transition is the question.
> (Hopefully Java will be able to print a report by then)

Seems to me that the transition is going to be continuous and not discrete.
What Mr. Natural said was "Always use the right tool for the job."  JAVA is
going to provide some really cool things, but unless it can be bastardized
(all right, adapted) in a way that seriously violates the "write once, run
anywhere" dictum, it will be tough to make it support the kind of file IO
that makes RPG so convenient for many tasks.  I think the future is going to
hold a lot more mixed language programming for all of us.  Personally, I'm
happy.  I like the novelty.

###########################################
The above is my personal opinion and is not intended to represent good
programming practice or the product of a sound mind.

Joel Fritz
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