Re: Impossible to even think about rewriting in RPG

That's sad. Sounds like they are punching their tickets until retirement.
I don't understand the mentality of doing the same 'ole stuff for years on
end since technology is constantly changing regardless of platform.
Granted, some programmers don't have the time or a choice, but it seems
that more often than not a lot just adamantly refuse to learn anything
new. I guess I enjoy what I do beyond a paycheck. Even though RPG brings
home the bacon, I have taken the time to learn other technologies in my
free time, whether it be languages like PHP, Java or C# or other platforms
like Linux or Mac OS. I'm not an expert in all those things, but fluent
enough to see solutions. The interest/investment pays off as well because
when a new requirement comes up, I can say, for example, I'll write that
in PHP or here's a great open source Linux app. that will do the job. This
can actually save time and money for the company and allow me
opportunities to expand professionally into other areas. I have been
around RPG programmers, however, who get annoyed by things like /free,
binder language, system APIs or embedded SQL, let alone different
technologies. Newer RPG features are of benefit on the job and not just
gimmicks, if one takes the time to learn them.

In any event, maybe there would be some value for companies like yours to
look for younger developers who are motivated to learn and invest in
bringing them up to speed on the system and RPG. I learned RPG on the job.
It was stuff like C, C++, Pascal, etc. that I learned in school. (Guess
I'm getting old because that was right before Java.) I didn't know what an
AS/400 was, but was sold once I learned the value. A good developer should
be able to pick up RPG basics quickly. Such persons might be interested if
they can be shown the value in the IBM i vis-a-vis other solutions like
Windows and SQL Server.

Blake



date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:51:37 -0600
from: Alan Campin <alan0307d@xxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: Impossible to even think about rewriting in RPG

We have 6 other RPG programmers (We had 7 but different division got rid
of
AS/400 and laid him off). Of that number 1 is willing to write some modern
code. All the other absolutely refuse. RPG monolith or nothing. How many
programmers do you think that we could find that would be willing to use
procedures, modules, service programs and SQL? We have a business local
that
is looking for somebody like that for a year (Contact to hire. Really
Contract to Term) and can't find anybody. We have another business local
that is looking for RPG monolith for a year and cannot find anybody but
like
I have said in the past. Strange market. Virtually no jobs.

On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 10:10 AM, Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Alan Campin wrote:
Impossible to even think about rewriting in RPG.
Cannot get programmers.
Almost impossible to find programmers willing to write modern code.

I'm always saddened to hear about companies migrating applications from

IBM

i to Windows, and I'd like to understand the rationale as much as

anyone,

but each of your points come across as untenable. I understand that

there

are other platform and language choice besides RPG, but can you

elaborate

why it would be impossible to even think about it? Surely it can't due

to a

lack of programmers willing and able to create modern code!

-Nathan