Re: Web Enabling Applications

Todd,

What I've discovered is that RPG is simply a better language for writing business rules and business logic than the others.

I agree with your assessment that it's often hard to find qualified RPG developers. That's not to say that it's hard to find RPG developers -- but rather than most RPG developers on the job market have out-of-date skills, so are not "qualified." The reasons for this vary, but it's mostly because too many businesses have this idea that RPG and IBM i are not capable (Which is completely untrue) and therefore delegate modern tasks to other platforms. This becomes self-fulfilling, because the RPGers don't get real life work experience with modern work.

To combat that, you have to start somewhere... and one approach that has worked well for several shops that I've talked to is to hire PHP or C programmers, and then TEACH them RPG. Many of them, once they get past the learning curve, are REALLY impressed by the RPG and IBM i environment. The integrated platform with integrated database is a positive boon for them. Being able to write business logic and database logic in RPG is something they enjoy, because it makes their job easier than attempting the same thing in languages like PHP or C. (Especially C!)

And they bring a fresh viewpoint to old shops, and their experience with modern development techniques comes along with them -- and the results are great.

So please don't be dismayed when you can't find RPG programmers... just hire a PHP or C programmer, and teach them. I think you'll be pleased with that.

However -- and this is a mistake I've seen too many times -- don't try to thrust them into old-fashioned ways of doing things, that will turn them off. Give them Rational Developer, not SEU/PDM. Have them learn and write apps in Free format code, with subprocedures and other modular techniques, and SQL for file access. Don't start them off with legacy stuff, or it will discourage them. (Though, probably down the road, they'll have to learn the legacy stuff to maintain older applications -- but don't start them there, or they'll get turned off of the platform.)

-SK


On 12/7/2012 1:06 PM, Allen, Todd wrote:

I may be in the minority here but I'd shy away from using CGIDEV2 for
any sort of web development. I say minority on this list only. The
percentage of all web developers that have used or heard of CGIDEV2
is probably less than .001%. We've found that RPG developers are
hard to find. RPG developers that have web experience are even
harder to find. If JSON is a requirement then I'd also be concerned
about processing JSON data with RPG. There are plenty of libraries
out there for JSON processing but I don't know if you'll find one for
RPG.