Re: Need Some RPG Technical Questions

Just to point out that it's not necessarily the programmer that is
exagerating their experience. People don't know what they don't know.

I've taught some of the IBM courses only to find programmers with 10 years
experience sign up for the Advanced course and they didn't even know the
beginner level of anything that was new since V5R1.

Here are a few items off the top of my head:

You might look at the chapters of some recent books.
Take a look at the course contents of IBM's courses (AS06, AS07, AS10).
Take a look at recent magazine articles, web sites System iNetwork and MC
Press Online, etc.
IBM Red Books and White Books.

Ask them to give you the prototype for something from scratch. This will
differentiate the programmers who like to copy and modify.
Ask them about the difference between *VARSIZE and *VARYING and other
things like that.
What does X =+ 1 do? (This is a trick question. It's not the same as X +=1)
Quiz them on some of the BIFs.
What are the different ways to do error handling?

How about DB2 questions?
What's the difference between the CQE and SQE and in what situations will
the system use either of them?

Ask about embedded SQL.
Ask about h-specs, d-specs, p-specs.

Ask about API programming using user spaces, pointers, ...

Ask about override scoping, activation groups, ...

Sorry I don't have more time. Hope this helps.

Glenn Gundermann
ggundermann@xxxxxx
(647) 272-3295

The manager on my new project has asked me to derive a list of RPG
technical questions for a programmer interview she is conducting later
today. The company is coming off of two old platforms (COBOL and Lansa)
and their intent is to do all development in RPGIV, /Free and embedded
SQL. They have been burned previously by a programmer or two who
represented mucho experience only to find that they did not know sh** from
Shinola.

If you have questions to submit which are thoughtful and moderately
involved, please send them to me offline at RWMunday@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thanks,



Robert Munday
Munday Software Consultants
Montgomery, AL
on assignment in Columbia, SC