Re: RPG/400 Definition (was Usin

Lynette,

I and many others share your frustration.  When someone says "RPG/400", I
automatically ask "RPG-III or RPG-IV?", because there really is no consensus
among the RPG programmer population about what it means.  If someone says "ILE
RPG", it can't be RPG-III, it must be RPG-IV, but I don't automatically
presume that it means ILE is being used.  You can use RPG-IV without
explicitly using ILE.

I concur with Bob Cozzi's book intro.  I seem to remember that RPG/400 was
used to differentiate the minute differences between RPG-III on the S/38 vs.
RPG/400 on the AS/400 when it first came out in 1988, before anyone had heard
of RPG-IV.  Before RPG-IV became a term, to me "RPG/400" meant the
RPG-III-like compiler created for the AS/400.

Clear as mud.

Dan Bale
IT - AS/400
Handleman Company
248-362-4400  Ext. 4952

-------------------------- Original Message --------------------------
so i am mistaken when someone uses the term RPG/400 and i think that this is a
 higher level than RPGIII?... Lemme get this straight.

RPGII
RPGIII
RPGIV  are the actual languages.
then what does ILE or /400 stand for?
when someone says they program RPG/ILE, what does that mean vs RPGIV?

Lynette Chronister

>>> Lisa.Abney@universalflavors.com 01/17/01 08:44AM >>>


I agree!  I buy lots of RPG books, and just take for granted that any newly
published books are going to be based on RPGIV and/or ILE.  However, I was
 VERY
disappointed to buy one last year (copyright date 1999) called Ready to Run
RPG/400 Techniques, by Julian Monypenny and Roger Pence, and find all the
wonderful examples done in RPGIII!  I've learned to be very cautious with
 books
that include RPG/400 in the title.

Bob Cozzi had an interesting explanation in the preface to his book The Modern
RPGIV Language (Second Edition):

   "There has been much confusion in the AS/400 world regarding the proper
 name
   of the RPG programming language.  This is primarily due to many IBM support
   personnel as well as the trade press mistakenly reporting the name of
 RPGIII
   as RPG/400.  There is not now, nor has there ever been, a programming
   language named "RPG/400."  The current AS/400 RPG compile package offered
 by
   the IBM Corporation is named IBM AS/400 ILE RPG/400 Compiler.  This package
   contains several compilers for many different RPG languages, including:
        System/36-compatible RPGII.
        System/38-compatible RPGIII.
        AS/400 RPGIII.  There is no "RPG/400" language per se (only AS/400 RPG
        III).
        AS/400 RPG IV.  This compiler targets the native integrated
 programming
        language environment (ILE).  There is no "ILE RPG" language, only an
        ILE-targeted RPGIV compiler."
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