Re: What good is ILE?

I was going to stay out of this as I've fallen below the MQC line as an RPG developer. But I used to do that and I've programmed in many languages for a bunch of years.

What I see in this thread is a strong dichotomy between replies, likely reflecting those making those replies (or at least those referred to.)
Like so many things in life to use any tool properly you must understand how to use it. Once that's mastered the tool can be used to best effect.

Consider the lumberman who cut down trees. He comes into the hardware to get his axe and his crosscut saw sharpened. He's a big burly man who can cut down five trees a day. The hardware man asks if he'd like to be able to cut 50 trees a day. Of course the burly man says he would like that. So he purchases the chain saw offered by the hardware man and hurries out the door. Late the next day he comes in tired and frustrated. He's quite irate with the hardware man: "You said I could cut 50 trees a day with this! I've barely managed but one and I'm exhausted! This thing barely works at all, it's heavy and I paid a lot for it!" The hardware man says: "Lets go out back and have a look." Out back the hardware man gives the cord a yank and fires it up at which point the burly man says: "WHAT'S THAT NOISE!?" ....

You see it's not just the tools it's how you use them. Used improperly they're just more expensive and complicated (potentially even dangerous!) while used correctly they can be amazing.

As with the chainsaw a bit of training can go a LONG way to making any tool useful. Accepting training and learning any tool can pay off big. Pushing training away and 'going it alone' or worse, simply ignoring the tools altogether is poor at best.

The dichotomy then is between those who are learning, embracing and growing with the platform and those who 'have always done it that way' and don't plan on changing.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 2/4/2013 6:38 PM, Alan Campin wrote:

All I can say is that if people think that ILE is complex and it is not,
wait until they try Java and Frameworks or C#. ILE RPG is so simple and
clean compared to writing for frameworks and all the stuff that goes with
it.

And finally, if you think you are going to stick you head in the sand and
write RPG III and that is all you will ever need, good luck with that one.
AS400 are vanishing right and left and new development is going to other
platforms precisely because people on the AS/400 will not change. I have
spoken with 5 different companies in the last few months and all of them
getting rid of the AS/400.


On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 4:04 PM, Bradley Stone <bvstone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I think Buck just touched on the difference between a programmer and a
coder. :)

Brad
www.bvstools.com