Re: Calling Java from RPG - CLASSPATH Problem?

["mlazarus@xxxxxxxx" <mlazarus@xxxxxxxx>]

Shannon,

>We have two "older" programmers, probably three, here, who, if the company
were to suddenly decide to dump RPG and go to Java or Visual Basic or .Net,
would be unemployable.  They don't understand, or for that matter, even care
to learn the complexities of another, any other, language.

1)  Not wanting to learn new things is a personal preference, not something
that can be blamed on IBM.

2)  How many super-duper VB or Java programmers can walk into an RPG shop,
if their favorite language was being dumped and be productive right away? 
Or for that matter switching from any considerably different language
(which most are) to another?  

> Being the best RPG programmer at your shop, heck, in your state!, in
today's
world, is, in my opinion, equivalent to being the best blacksmith in New
York city. Sure it's a great skill to have, but what are you going to do
when all the horses are gone?

 The argument that RPG is going away has been made for the last 15-20
years, so I'm not buying it.  Should one expand their realm of expertise? 
Of course!  Interoperability / cross platform processing is a good area to
know.  But the "chicken little" attitude about RPG is self defeating, IMHO.

 As to IBM making things too easy, should we all switch to IFS, byte
stream, maybe null or CR/LF, multi-format flat files, becuase DB records
are too easy to use?  Should we do away w/ user *CMD creation, because it's
too easy and no other platform has it?  Etc, etc.  I think that that's a
silly direction to take (and I hope that you do too!)

 -mark

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