RE: Java and RPG comparison

It seems to me that the answer is pretty obvious.  Java is a new language
that does best on the 'new' development tasks needed (networking,
distributed programming, multi-threading, garbage collection and other
features for safer code, javadoc for quicker documentation,
internationalization, portability of code, etc).  RPG is an old langage
that solves the problems of 'old' development tasks (database access,
report generation, and other things - sorry, guys, I just don't know much
else about RPG).

Which is better is a matter of opinion (actually, its probably a matter
mostly of your background and needs).  One thing is (almost) certain.... we
are never going back.  If you find that RPG solves all your problems and
doesn't prohibit you from solving any new ones, you should definitely
continue to use it.  But I would not expect there to be a need for more RPG
programmers in 10 years than there are now.  Joe said "At least at this
point in time, I can write a database server far more efficiently in RPG
than I can in SQL."  I am not certain if he meant the code was more
efficient or if he was more efficient in doing it.  I could write the code
more efficiently in Java.  And it would be multi-threaded.  Could easily
support complex transactional requirements.  Easily support
internationalization.  Easily support different network protocols such as
SOAP so that I could talk to my database server from a palm pilot just like
I talk to it from my sockets based client.  And when I was done, my program
is likely to run unchanged on other systems.

You see, if your problems are largely similar to the problems you had to
solve 10 years ago, there would be little need for different tools.  The
problems some of us are trying to solve have radically changed.  We use
JDBC as a database mechanism, not because its the fastest database
interface in the world.  We use it because we find it trivial to understand
(sorry, it just *makes* sense to me the way it is) and it's where the
industry has gone .  Getting to the database isn't my only goal anymore
(its really not a goal at all, its just a requirement I have).  Creating a
global application that works efficiently in distributed environments
(world-wide) is what I have to accomplish.  I can cache and queue things so
that performance is almost always what I need (without sacrificing OO
design or code reuse).  Afterall, there are multiple network hops expected
in most everything that I work on.

Regards,

Richard D. Dettinger
AS/400 Java Data Access Team

"Biologists have a special word for stability -- dead"

                Larry Wall
                Open Source Developers Journal
                Issue 1, Jan  2000

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