Re: What would you do without RPG?

Hi Scott,

That's an interesting perspective, and sounds very much like a programmer's perspective.

What about operations? Do you consider the IBM i's work management to be about the same as Windows or Linux? What about the integration of the database with the OS - is that not a big deal? I tend to be isolated from the operational side myself, but I keep hearing about dedicated personnel required to handle say SQL Server's database administration, lots of tweaking of indices, cleaning up, reorganizing, etc. Is that only larger shops?

Then there's messages, job logs, ability to look at details of a job (open files, call stack, etc) as the job is running that I miss a lot when working on a Windows machine. Are similar things available on Windows or Linux that I'm not aware of? (I wouldn't be surprised)

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On 7/18/2014 11:12 PM, Scott Klement wrote:

Nathan,

For me, this is a really tough question. I do not program solely in RPG... for years and years, I've had the option to write my new applications in just about anything I've wanted. I choose RPG because it's the language I like the best, and I find it's the most productive language for writing business applications. (That's just my opinion.)

So if RPG was gone, would I stay with the platform or move? I don't know. I'd be very unhappy with IBM at that point. I certainly wouldn't run something like Java (which I really hate). If I went to a language like PHP, Python or Ruby and had to start from the ground up, I'd probably leave the platform. IMHO, in these environments, you lose the benefits of IBM i... it becomes just like any other OS, so might as well use something more mainstream at that point. The advantage of being able to do those things on IBM i is really that it allows them to be on the same box that my RPG stuff is on, so without the RPG stuff, I think I'd just move them somewhere else.

On the other hand, I could see myself staying with the platform if I went to ILE C++. I don't like C++ for business logic as much as I like RPG for it... but then, I can't think of ANYTHING I like as much as RPG for business logic. So if I had to switch, it might as well be C++, which can at least take full advantage of the native features of the OS, such as job logs, message queues, exception handling, etc. ILE C++ is much better than ILE C, because the standard classes give me all the string handling, etc, that's just cumbersome in C.

So I might stay with the platform in C++... but... not 100% sure. RPG is definitely one of the biggest things I love about this OS, and I sure hope I never have to make this decision.

-SK


On 7/18/2014 10:06 AM, Nathan Andelin wrote:

The question about an RPGLE compiler for other platforms triggered some
thoughts. But I didn't want to hijack that other thread to raise them.

This question is only hypothetical, because I'm sure that IBM will continue
to support and enhance ILE RPG for as long as IBM supports IBM i.

This question is more about your dependence upon or perhaps even love for
the RPG language vs. your dependence upon or love for the IBM i platform.

If IBM were to abandon support for RPG, would you abandon IBM i? Does RPG
mean that much to you?

As much as I like RPG, my answer is that given NO ILE RPG, I would probably
convert my ILE RPG code to ILE C, in order to continue supporting and
deploying under IBM i.

In some ways, it feels like I'm already there. We are using procedures and
service programs to such a great extent that it feels like we could do
without op codes without much heartburn.

We rely so heavily on a framework of API's, that we might just continue the
interface specifications, except write them using ILE C.

What are your thoughts?

Nathan.

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