Re: RPG - I'm not dead yet!

The gist of what i'm trying to say is that RPG got evolved, only after the
platform was already gone into decline.
Only then we got something what resembles a programming language.

Most RPG'ers and most software on AS/400, is developed with RPGIII, and
this
is still the common programming idiom for AS/400.


Ok.

So maybe i am too biased.
Maybe RPG really really is a good language.
Maybe Smalltalk and other languages spoiled me, and are toy languages
anyway.
Not a real business language like RPG (business didn't need dates before
1994 apparently).

Now i think of it, i like RPGIV.
Thinking back of the 90's, fighting with RPGIII, no support of anything i
think you really need (like local variables).
If i think back to that amateur hobby language RPGIII, yes, you are right,
RPGIV is a really good business language.

Just pitty almost all software on AS/400 is written in RPGIII.








On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 5:55 PM, Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Ah - I understand now. You've been discussing RPG III all this time!

The

rest of us have been discussing RPG IV!

On Jul 11, 2011, at 11:41 AM, rpg400-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

The reason why, IMHO, RPG is a "fatal" flaw is because most RPG

programmers

are "raised" with a "language" that doesn't support all kind of

trivial

things, like normal dates,

Supported since the beginning of RPG IV _15_ years ago and repeatedly
enhanced since then.

like "free format",

Available since V5R1 (i.e. 5+ years ago - at least where it matters.

local variables,

Available for or over 12 years (V3R2/R6).

long variable names

Available since hmmmm V4R2 I think - so 10 years or so.

(we have indicators),

And we've had named booleans/indicators since - whenever - V3R7 maybe - I
don't recall.

only columnar format,

See comment above re free-form

only subroutines
and no any other way of abstraction, JUST subroutines (yes thanks to

OS/400

we can call other programs as modules but again this is not a language
feature), etc etc.

See comment on local variables - this has not been true since V3R2/R6.

Seems to me that your knowledge of the language you are critiquing is

part

of the problem. How can we have a valid discussion without that

knowledge?

Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com




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