RE: Proportion of programming languages on AS400

"Nothing in particular.  It just made me laugh.  If IBM had any RPG
expertise you'd think the examples they provide in the manuals would be a
little better than the 20 year old crap they do publish.  Hmmm?"

This reminded me of an IBM application we bought to run on our System/38 at
a prior employer.  It was a hotel reservation/guest accounting package, and
many big hotels/resorts bought this package.  It worked, but was d*** near
unmaintainable, thanks to fluky coding practices, lots of branching, and a
main module that was over 16000 lines of RPG!  Be thankful they didn't use
this as an example.

Terry Richardson
Sr. P/A
The Orvis Company, Inc.
802-362-8663


        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Simon Coulter [SMTP:shc@flybynight.com.au]
        Sent:   Monday, November 22, 1999 6:27 AM
        To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
        Subject:        Re: Proportion of programming languages on AS400


        Hello Booth,

        Nothing in particular.  It just made me laugh.  If IBM had any RPG
expertise you'd think the 
        examples they provide in the manuals would be a little better than
the 20 year old crap they 
        do publish.  Hmmm?

        While there MAY have been one or two very early IBM products written
in RPG (I vaugely recall 
        something on V1 using RPG), RPG is hardly qualified for systems
programming.  Systems were 
        being written long before C came along (and C was first implemented
in assembly until those 
        two who shall remain nameless had enough to assemble a C compiler
written in C -- an example 
        of the proverbial bootstrap).  IBM used to do everything itself.
Its own hardware, software, 
        compilers, etc, etc, but that has been changing over the last few
years.

        Most IBM development was done using macro assembly languages or some
derivative of PL/1 (PL/X, 
        PL/X86, PL/MI, PL/AS).  New development for the AS/400 is done
mostly in C unless the existing 
        code base is in PL/MI ('cause the bean counters think they get a
greater return on their 
        investment in bodies if they don't have to teach graduates a new
language.  The argument goes 
        something like this: They graduate knowing C don't they, and of
course, their professors 
        taught them to program rather than simply complete assignments,
right?  So if we write code in 
        C then our new hires will be productive from day one rather than
spending some months with a 
        mentor learning about PL/MI and the AS/400.  Pointy-haired bosses
strike again!)

        OS/400 and it's LPPs are written in many languages:  Query
Management is written in Modula2 
        (supplied by Logitech), Query Manager is written in PL/MI, except
for the prompted editor 
        which is C, SLIC is written in C++.  I believe there was even a
Snobol compiler for the S/38 
        which never saw the outside world.  Some screens use UIM, some are
still DDS.

        Regards,
        Simon Coulter.

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        //--- forwarded letter
-------------------------------------------------------
        > X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Release 5.0.1b September 30, 1999
        > Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 14:23:24 -0500
        > From: boothm@earth.goddard.edu
        > To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
        > Reply-To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
        > Cc: none
        > Subject: Proportion of programming languages on AS400

        > 
        > oh.  Glad to bring happiness to a curmudgeon.   Was any one part
funnier 
        > than the other parts?
        > 
        > I swear that I remember this from way back in the early 1970s.
What 
        > language were they using then?  Isn't C and C++ much newer than
the 1970s?
        > 
        > _______________________
        > Booth Martin
        > boothm@earth.goddard.edu
        > http://www.spy.net/~booth

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