RE: "RPG isn't cool" (was: Re: IBM Secret)

[boothm@xxxxxxx]

Brad, I have wondered about this solution in context with another issue. 
I have noticed that people with C++ training are either good and in the
top 5% of their class or else not good enough to make a living as a
programmer.  

RPG on the other hand is easy and clear enough so that almost anyone with
the qualifications to get enrolled in a college's RPG class has a good
chance of passing with good grades and getting a good job with a
productive programming future.  In my opinion much of that characterisitic
is due to the very nature of RPG's structure.  Therefore my conclusion is
that free flowing form is not a plus for the middle and bottom of the bell
curve.   RPG is not an elitist's programming language, it is a working
man's tool. 

Spoken from somewhere in the middle of the bell curve.


In <4EC96B864C1CD211BBC500805FE6FDBC1B4E13@tcexch1.taylorcorp.com>, on
05/10/99 
   at 10:14 AM, "Stone, Brad V (TC)" <bvstone@taylorcorp.com> said:

>> Now, let's assume that being "cool" is a desirable
>> quality in a programming language.  If we were to try to
>> change RPG from an "uncool" language to a "cool" language,
>> is there a single easy thing we could do to improve the
>> language?
>> 
>[Bradley V. Stone]  Free format would be the biggest help.  Getting rid
>of limits to sizes of file names, field names, variables, etc would the
>the second.  

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------
boothm@ibm.net
Booth Martin
-----------------------------------------------------------

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