RE: Modernising the AS/400

Buck, thanks for your encouraging words.  I'll keep my eyes out for "Code
Complete".

I can't say I'm ever subversive <g>, but prefer to be known as persuasive.
I've found that you can't use "it's the latest & greatest" as an argument
anymore.  You really have to justify using new "stuff" in short term ROI
numbers.  You're right, of course, picking and fighting the right battles.
It would be so much easier if my employer was terrible to work for, I'd just
shop for the perfect job.  Now, I just keep my feelers out there.

BTW, as an interesting (to me, anyway) aside, I attended our local user
group's monthly meeting last night and met John Sears for the first time.
He gave an excellent 90-minute overview of Java, including a very
interesting historical look at the beginnings of the architecture that is
today the AS/400.  During the presentation, he made a comment (which, if I
remember correctly, was a response to a question) that if the AS/400 ever
went away, RPG programmers had better have another skill, i.e. Java.  Taking
questions after he finished his presentation, I asked somewhat
tongue-in-cheek, "So, where are all these AS/400 Java shops?".  It got a
good chuckle from the audience and John, and he replied that there were
several big shops and mentioned another IBM'er who handles these accounts.
Although he didn't say so explicitly, I came away with the feeling that
there are only a handful of AS/400 shops that are using Java in a production
environment.  The followup question had to wait until after the meeting was
closed and he was packing up and I told him how it sounded like this
presentation was almost a warning shot to RPG programmers everywhere - learn
Java or hope that the AS/400 (and RPG) lasts for a very long time.  He
agreed.  I suppose that should be common sense.  But the underlying message
that I can't seem to get away from is that Java has a LOOOOOONG way to go
before it becomes mainstream, if it ever does, in the AS/400 environment.

Anybody on this list using, or know of a shop that is using, Java in a
production AS/400 environment?

- Dan Bale

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Buck Calabro [SMTP:buck.calabro@aptissoftware.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2000 9:27 AM
> To:   rpg400-l@midrange.com
> Subject:      RE: Modernising the AS/400  WAS: external *PRTF
> 
> Dan Bale wrote:
> 
> >Any opportunity to learn new techniques / technology 
> >must be done pretty much on my own time.  I have 
> >three young kids, so there has to be a balance.
> 
> Man, I hear you there!  I have never had an employer who said to me "Hey,
> take a week off of production work and read up on ReXX.  Tell us what you
> think of it..."  My two children are teenagers, and I surely understand
> the
> burden of time that work places on my life with my family.  I either worm
> the new stuff in during a project or spend an hour a day "after hours" to
> tinker.
> 
> >Plus, it would be extremely helpful to know that I 
> >will actually be able to use what I'm learning in the 
> >real world.  I haven't seen a whole lot of openings 
> >for AS/400 Java programmers (read: none) in the Detroit area.
> 
> My eyes were opened after reading several modern books on programming in
> general.  I really think that every programmer should read Bruce
> McConnell's
> book "Code Complete."  What you learn isn't so much "how to make Java or C
> or Pascal  do what you want" so much as "why should I avoid global
> variables?  How do I decide to make a code fragment into a function or
> procedure?"  Literally, these ideas are usable in any environment, any
> language.
> 
> >It's nice that you have a boss that gives you the freedom 
> >to choose your "weapons".  Some of us aren't so fortunate.  
> >I try to urge the laggards along, but usually hit the F.U.D. wall.
> 
> I probably should not say this in a public forum, but my boss was
> adamantly
> against the use of RPG IV.  Period.  No debate.  I went behind his back
> and
> used it anyway.  He never noticed, and the folks that need to maintain my
> newfangled code are quite happy to do so.  Oh, not because I am an
> excellent
> programmer, but because RPG IV is so much easier to understand simply
> because my style isn't hampered by hideously cryptic variable names.
> 
> I am an old-timer who thinks (thought?) of RLU as a waste.  I do all my
> DDS
> for printer files by hand.  I will re-examine RLU now that I've seen the
> posts here, but the point is that my boss has no idea if I am using an
> automated tool to design printer files or a laborious hand coding process.
> I may be a bit subversive, but if the boss says something patently stupid,
> I
> ignore him.  "Don't use a modern language like RPG IV because Dopey the
> junior programmer is too dull to learn it.  Yeah, we paid for it, but
> we're
> not going to use it"  My answer is "I can't read that new format file on
> the
> IFS unless I use RPG IV."  
> 
> Pick your battle wisely, sure, but fight that battle.  Your own career is
> literally on the line.  I can still read punch cards by looking at the
> holes.  Oddly enough, there isn't much demand for card-reading
> programmers.
> The point is that if I can't understand and use modern programming ideas
> (Local storage, procedures, binding/linking) I will be rapidly out of a
> job.
> I can't afford to leave my current employer, but can I really afford to
> keep
> myself deliberately in the programming Dark Ages?
> 
> Ignore the laggards.  They will ALWAYS be laggards, always waiting for
> somebody like you to drag them along into the future.  Helping and
> mentoring
> them may be the right thing to do, but just once, I'd like to see one of
> these folks take a little initiative and do some reading on their own.
> Just
> once.
> 
> I feel for you, and seriously hope that I have provided you with some
> ideas
> for helping your situation.  I guess that my fanaticism comes from being
> in
> the Dark Ages for so long, and now I see the light of the Renaissance!  I
> think that it's up to us; each individual programmer to modernise our shop
> by modernising our own thinking.  If we wait for IBM to do better
> marketing,
> or for the boss to send us to school or for the laggards to become
> independent learners then we suffer the fate of the blacksmith.  Highly
> skilled workers, limited to an ever-shrinking niche market, leaving the
> profession one at a time.
> 
> Buck Calabro
> Aptis; Albany, NY
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