Re: RPG

On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 3:13 PM, Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Having taught RPG to a _lot_ of non-RPGers John I’ll just say that in my opinion you are wrong.

About which part(s)? It's not clear to me from the rest of your
response whether you are trying to emphasize that (1) the choice of
learning fixed vs. free does make a big difference, or (2) Brad's
tutorials are out of date.

I agree with you that there have been array and data structure
enhancements in RPG that are well worth learning. I have no idea
whether they are covered in Brad's tutorials or the older books you
mentioned. I do like your treatment of them (and other features) here:

http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh082202-story03.html

I suppose those may already be considered "out of date" too, but given
the amount of RPG III and RPG/400 code out there (and even earlier
stuff), these still feel pretty fresh to me. (Maybe I should mention
that I think a lot of folks are in that situation Buck described of
having to deal with a preponderance of legacy code, as well as
potentially writing new RPG code. So learning the old stuff, even if
you aren't going to write new programs with it, can still be
important. That's the sense and spirit in which I believe Brad used
the term "timeless".)

There have also been changes in subprocedures - in particular the removal of the requirement to always have prototypes, something that really bugs and confuses newbies because it made no sense for local subprocs.

That was definitely a peeve of mine, and a very welcome change.

Brad does good work and treats his customers well - I just wish that Rochester Connection would do more to update the materials they sell.

I found this confusing until I dug around and found Brad's courses
being offered by the Rochester *Initiative*.

John Y.