Re: What bugs you about KLISTs in RPG IV?

Jon,

In a message dated 6/18/99 2:06:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Jon.Paris@halinfo.it writes:

>  >> I cannot think of, and have never heard, a single cogent argument 
against
>  free form.
>  
>  There is no cogent argument against it, but that's not the point. Was 
there a
>  convincing argument _for_ it.

Prior to JAVA, there was.  The AS/400 needed a "cool" language, and RPG could 
have been it in a free form version.

>   >> It is utterly baffling.
>  
>  Not really - it was very clear from talking to a large number of users 
that a
>  very large percentage would not use a completely free-form version of the
>  language. However, they would use a hybrid version that incorporated 
free-form
>  "where it made sense". If we'd been delivering the product 10 years 
earlier when
>  there was a whole fleet of IBM SEs available to help spread the word so 
that
>  customers would give it a try it would have been worth the risk. As it was 
the
>  field force was being eliminated and vehicles such as this list had not 
begun to
>  emerge to take their place. My belief then, and I've seen no reason to 
change
>  it, was that our best bet was to produce something that made the 
fixed-formers
>  happy - let them use it for a bit and then they would convince themselves 
of the
>  benefits of free-form and ask for it.

Amen on the current lack of SE's and the then lack of Internet access.  I 
still want to know what bunch of _ABSOLUTE IDIOTS_ you spoke to that wasn't 
interested in RPG/free ;-)!  Perhaps they were still tied to those BCD cards 
as "current" technology?

>  They are asking for it <grin>
>  
>  IBM does not have (even now) a viable structure for getting the news out 
about
>  products and enhancements. Talk to other local users, find out how many 
don't
>  even know they have a database on the system!! Ask at a User Group meeting
>  and see how many have _never_ heard of Code/400 (hell it's only been on 
the 
>  market about 7 years!)

"Consultant Relations" works pretty well for me, but doesn't do much for the 
users.  Good for _me_ and much better than I've had in the past (even working 
for an Agent firm), doesn't do much for the _customer_, though.  Guess more 
info needs to get out there in a format that can be understood by people 
other than those of us that have dealt with IBM for years...

>  Now tell me how they were ever going to persuade the majority of RPGers to 
use
>  a radically new product ?

They weren't.  What you're calling "the majority" of RPGers _IS_ the majority 
by virtue of its' own existence.  Most of that "majority" couldn't find this 
list with both hands and a flashlight (or torch for those of you 
USA-and-zed-deprived folks).  They're probably spending most of their time 
now bemoaning the advent of RISC or trying to figure out how to make their 
Advanced/36 applications Y2K compliant.  Frankly, it's people like that that 
tend to doom the AS/400 to extinction.  Why change when what we have already 
works?  Byte me!  The ease of use of the /400 alone has me dropping /36 and 
/390 from my resume in fear that someone will actually ask me to work on 
these systems.  Your "majority" would prefer to stick with these technologies.

>  Anyway - I'm out of this discussion - what happened happened - and I've 
wasted
>  enough of my life fighting this battle over and over.
>  
>  Yeah - yeah - I know I should have resisted the temptation to bite when the
>  first shot was fired.

Ahhh, if nobody fights, nobody wins!

Regards,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"While an original is hard to find, he's always easy to recognize." -- John 
L. Mason
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