RE: why rpg and not cobol

Dave,

I am sure COBOL has advantages, but I can't think of any, except for
the very important "critical mass" you have already noted.

I started my work in an IBM IMS database, JCL and COBOL environment.

After three years, the company made a dramatic change and "converted"
from water-cooled main frame to System 38, CL and RPG.

RPG seemed utterly strange: character fields moved to numeric ?!

Now, with ILE and free format, when I need to maintain the COBOL
programs we run, I hate every minute, but, if I were in your
position, I would embrace the opportunity with the thought that
there is probably nothing you need to do that COBOL, with some
other tools, cannot accomplish.

Best of luck!

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dave
Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2013 5:30 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: Re: why rpg and not cobol

I started my programming training with the basics of COBOL, and I remember being horrified when I first saw RPG. My job as an RPG programmer was recently abrubtly terminated, but I've just had an offer of employment as a COBOL programmer. I will be trained, so how can I refuse? Even if it doesn't work out, I end up with another tool in the box. But I just saw something that made me even more optimistic about COBOL : on the most well-known French employment site, if I type RPG, I get 30 jobs in the whole country. If I type COBOL, I get more than 180! I seem to remember that when I started out, things were the other way round. Could this be due to the demise of the i, whereas systems using COBOL aren't as easily replaced? Or, has COBOL advantages over RPG?


2013/4/11 John Yeung <gallium.arsenide@xxxxxxxxx>

On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 5:13 PM, Dave <dfx1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

2013/4/10 <Dirk.Marien@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

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.

But on the i, I suspect that the overwhelming majority choose RPG. Why?

Why

is COBOL the choice for mainframes?

The first answer from James (explaining the history) was a pretty good
explanation. "Report Program Generator" had a syntax well-suited to
its target audience. I would expand on it and say that building the
cycle into its design was also a major advantage for its intended use.
For that group of users/operators, and for the tasks they needed to
do, I would argue that RPG was *objectively better* than COBOL.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the machines
where COBOL dominated (and perhaps still dominates) did not come with
RPG.

Finally, though I think sheer inertia is the main thing that makes
most i programmers choose RPG over COBOL today, RPG does have some
distinct advantages for a modern audience. RPG IV is much more like
mainstream programming languages, whereas COBOL is more verbose and
English-like. And today, if you are working with databases and you
want English-like, you are going to go with SQL anyway, rather than
COBOL.

I disagree with Dirk that RPG is pretty much interchangeable with
COBOL. I mean, in a theoretical sense, it is. Both languages are
Turing complete. But when it comes to actually using them, they have
different enough styles that being comfortable with one doesn't
automatically translate into being comfortable with the other.

John
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