Re: v4 vs v5 rpg. was Prototypes, /COPY and LIKE() -- RPG400-L

Steve Richter wrote:

To quote Woody Allen, a programming language is like a shark.  It either
continues to move forward or it dies.

I'm not sure if Woody Allen ever said anything like that. But perhaps over time he'll join Mark Twain and GBS in that many witticisms may well get attributed to him, rightly or wrongly.


The current state of the as400 is that there is no one language that is
best, that meets all the requirements of writing bug free applications that
will run on the system.  RPG does not handle exceptions well. ( exception
handling folks, is a big and important topic.  It is a key component to
writing bug free, modular/reusable code. ) Java does handle exceptions, but
it does not interface ( guessing here ) well with the as400 database, ile
and program calls.  And ILE which should stitch these different languages
together doesnt do that very well.  ( what happens when a java proc throws
and exception back to an rpg or c++ proc? )

You're absolutely right - no one language is best for all purposes. And that's the way it will be for some time to come. Not only for iSeries programmers, but everywhere. Different application domains have different requirements. For example, systems programming needs a language system that produces tight and efficient code. C is ideal for that domain. On the other hand, application programming has different needs. Since most apps are I/O bound, efficiency of the generated code is not as important. Application programming needs rich languages and tools, often with features that emphasize programmer productivity.


Hans, you can belittle this all you want and IBM mgmt can think that the
as400 is safe in what looks more and more to be a niche large system market.
The bottom line is that OS400 programmers are losing jobs and IBM does not
appear to have plans for improving the platform.

I sympathise with your concerns. But as they say, the only constant in this industry is change. If you think you can build a career based on knowledge and experience in only one particular tool or language or operating system, you're going to lose out. That *is* a fact of life in this industry. Period.

Regarding the iSeries and OS/400, I can't speak for Rochester's plans. But with respect to RPG, as far as I know, we will continue to enhance that language, as well as improve the RPG related tools. (Currently, we have more people assigned to RPG tools than to the compiler.) Perhaps the pace of language improvement doesn't satisfy everyone. But on the other hand, if we try to do too much at any release, we run the risk of leaving programmers behind. I think to some extent, we may already be doing that.

Cheers! Hans