RE: RPG Free Format question

And herein lies our problem with the new coders coming out of our parent
company.  From what I understand, the RPG programmers coming out of
University are hired by our parent company and taken under the wing of
the senior programmers.  The senior programmers do not know anything
other than RPG III, so the new graduates "learn" that way of
programming.

Unfortunately, this practice is perpetuated as the juniors become
seniors and teach those under them the "RPG III" way.  Hence, when our
company programs in more efficient RPG IV, we receive no support from
the parent company.

I think that's why the programmers in our shop have no motivation to
program on our AS/400.  It is the opinion of them that the parent
company discourages "new technology" simply because they do not
understand the value of moving to RPG-IV.

Since I have been with the company, it has become my mission to become
self-sufficient from the parent company (in terms of RPG programming)
within five years.  To my credit, our senior management recognizes the
need to change and have given me full support to do so.  However, it is
an uphill struggle because:

1) The parent company will only code in RPG III
2) The existing source code contains NO documentation and is fraught
with a myriad of GOTOs and generic variable names (I have yet to see any
fields other than FLD1, FLD2 used for descriptions).

All of our other sister companies have full-time RPG programmers on
staff - we're the last of the companies that are still somewhat
dependant on our parent company for figuring out what the heck they are
doing in their code.

I'll climb down off of my soapbox... :)

Brian.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Adams [mailto:jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 8:57 AM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: RPG Free Format question

   Steve's shop sounds like mine: Mostly RPG II running in the 36
   environment, but no RPG III stuff.  Well, there was, but I converted
it to
   IV.

   Brian's comment about the "dinosaur" not understanding IV kind of
stunned
   me.  Personally I find IV much more readable than either II or III,
and
   when /free is used it becomes even more readable.  Heck, my boss (a
VB and
   Access kind of guy) can read and comprehend the logic of a IV or
/free
   program.  Can't write it, but he can read it.

 Jerry C. Adams

   Raby, Steve (GE Advanced Materials, consultant) wrote:

 Wow, that sounds a lot like our shop!  The top dog (who is now an
 advisor) insists that we have two source code directories - one for
 RPGLE (which he doesn't understand because we (the younger programmers)
 exclusively use free form), and a directory for RPGIII coding (which is
 the only format he understands).

 Furthermore, when we code new web pages for our RPG, he insists that we
 also "green screen it" because he finds point and click too confusing!
 So that usually results in our workload being increased threefold.


 Hello Brian,

 So he gets his hands "dirty" by coding does he? If not why should it
matter to him?

 As I have pointed out before I am an "old dinosaur" who is trying to
get up to date. My problem is I contracted for about 10 years and was
always too busy earning money to keep up with most of the trends. Now I
am trying to catch up, I am just getting into API's, BIF's and free
format. I have also yet to pluck up courage and follow Bob Cozzi's "Lets
build a procedure" example. Problem is, as always, time. The stuff here
is 60%+ RPGII, running on a S36 environment, we have had a little
development which I do in as near to total RPGIV as I am able(yes there
is a little RPGIII/400 in there).

 Through being a member of this group I have learnt a hell of lot which
I am adding to my programs all the time, like the LOOKUP stuff Peter
sent me this morning. My company will not invest in giving me courses to
update my skills, mainly because they are a PC support company and I was
forced upon them by the company we sub-contract to, and so I try and do
the best I can, and the very skilled, and may I say courteous (never
know when I may need more help :-) ), people on here always have an
answer for me.

 Steve