Re: why rpg and not cobol

Hi,

Both RPG and Cobol still exist on the i. and they both are still alive and
kicking: RPG (IV, ILE, ...) is - a lot - more used than Cobol (also ILE,
...). Choosing between them is like choosing between Outlook and Notes:
they have a slightly different way of 'processing', but basically, they do
the same thing, they have the same objective.

The question you can ask is: how comes that they still survive, while
other languages become more popular (c, java, ...). The answer is simple:
if you realise that on some of the the i's software is running that has
been written 30 yrs ago (S3, S36, S38, AS/400, systemi, ....) the i
provides a ROI (return on investments) that is unknown in the world of
ICT, and thus providing an enormous profit for the companies running on
i... . Then can decide themselves if they want to upgrade their
software, and when they want to upgrade. There is no time-pressure, the
old software still runs.

Kr,
Dirk.

Dirk








"James H. H. Lampert" <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Re: why rpg and not cobol






"Dave" wrote

I would like to know why RPG is the principal language on the i. Has
it always been so since the days of the AS400 and beyond? Is it just
an IBM thing?

TheBorg wrote:

Because the primarily language on the predecessor systems was RPG?
;-)

Here is my understanding of it.

Back in the 1960s, IBM Rochester was the division that made
plugboard-programmable unit record machines. They had been tasked with
developing a new generation of unit record machines; instead, they
invented the first IBM Midrange computer, the System/3.

The prevailing thought at the time was that for a computer, you needed a
programmer, wheras the geeky kid in the mailroom could wire a plugboard
for a unit record machine. Since the target market for the S/3 was
existing unit record machine customers, it needed a language that would
be easy for that geeky kid in the mailroom to learn.

They already had one: RPG. Anybody who'd wired a plugboard could quickly
learn to understand and code RPG.

So in 1969, IBM introduced the S/3, with RPG II. And over the years, the
S/3 begat the S/32 the S/34, the S/38, the S/36 (a dead-end), and the
AS/400 (which began as a tweaked S/38), and RPG stuck with it, evolving
as it went, but still (until fairly recently) keeping the "virtual
plugboard" syntax intact.

--
JHHL