× The internal search function is temporarily non-functional. The current search engine is no longer viable and we are researching alternatives.
As a stop gap measure, we are using Google's custom search engine service.
If you know of an easy to use, open source, search engine ... please contact support@midrange.com.



Bob Cozzi wrote:
RPG started out fixed, so whether or not it started out free is irrelevant. Some reasons the free-format stuff isn't 100% yet, is because it is new. For
example, when a new language, such as Java arrived on the scene, it had so
many shortcomings and eventually became better (although the idea of Java is
like saying English should be spoken by all humans in all countries... It
just doesn't make any sense to me at all, but I, as usual, digress. <g>)
The point is there is a lot of legacy in RPGIV/RPGIII's columnar
instructions. Granted there are some (many?) at IBM who think that the
MOVE/MOVEL opcodes should not exist (why aren't their equivalent in /FREE?)
and those that think the truncating numbers on an assignment should always
cause an error. Well, I could suggest that some people, way back when choose
RPG and the S/3x platforms because they were unlike all the other systems.
That is they did things in a way so that we could get the job of running
business applications done. I could go on, but it could turn ugly. :)
-Bo

Bob: Since you raise the point of the S/3x machines of past decades, it should also be pointed out that the computing machines of today are nothing like the S/3, S/32, S/34, etc. machines of the past. Up until relatively recently, programming has been largely concerned with the use of expensive and limited resources, such as memory. Application design was influenced largely by these limitations.


But that was then, this is now. Memory today is cheap, and you don't have to worry as much about allocating lots of storage. CPU's are now lightning fast, so performance isn't so much a concern. And so programming now is fundamentally different. The economics of programming have shifted with CPU and RAM now commodities. And so now it's become more important to use programmers more efficiently rather than to use the computing hardware more efficiently.

What's my point? Sure, the RPG legacy is important. And as far as I can predict, there will always be an RPG compiler to compile legacy RPG code on the iSeries and its successors. But the goalposts have moved since the S/3x days. Programming is different now, and older programming styles are becoming more and more passe.

As Chris P has pointed out, no one - NO ONE - in any other language community would (or could) even imagine Java or C or C++ or Perl or Python or whatever as a fixed-form language. And no one in any of those community could possibly imagine assignment operations that worked like RPG's MOVE and MOVEA.

Cheers! Hans


As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

This thread ...

Follow-Ups:
Replies:

Follow On AppleNews
Return to Archive home page | Return to MIDRANGE.COM home page

This mailing list archive is Copyright 1997-2024 by midrange.com and David Gibbs as a compilation work. Use of the archive is restricted to research of a business or technical nature. Any other uses are prohibited. Full details are available on our policy page. If you have questions about this, please contact [javascript protected email address].

Operating expenses for this site are earned using the Amazon Associate program and Google Adsense.