RE: An odd thing -- MIDRANGE-L

Paul:

Just a few comments about the RPG cycle -

1)  It is unique to RPG.  No other language that I know of has this inherent 
cycle.  One can "easily" (relatively) convert programs from COBOL to FORTRAN to 
BASIC to (pick-your-favorite).  But to convert to/from RPG using the cycle 
takes special knowledge (job security?) that only RPG programmers have.  Even 
those of us that no longer use the cycle for processing, still use the cycle 
for file opens/closes (at least some of us do), so there is still some 
RPG-specific knowledge required, but far less, making RPG programs much more 
convertible and understandable for non-RPG programmers.  (BTW...I don't use 
indicators in the left-hand columns either, no matter how many of those old 
programs still have my name on them!)

2)  The RPG cycle isn't the easiest thing to learn.  It took me a week to 
figure out how to get the date and time on page 1 of a report using the cycle 
and the 1P indicator.  I had to call a friend and he had to _tell_ me...I never 
did figure it out on my own!

3)  Having said the above, I _do_ use the cycle for one-time programs that do 
_not_ go into production.  Using the cycle for production programs here is 
"verboten"...the quickest one-way-ticket to the unemployment line I know of!

The cycle had its place, but I think that place is now in the past.

Bruce Guetzkow
Team Coordinator, Applications Development
Highsmith Inc.
W5527 Highway 106 P.O. Box 800
Fort Atkinson, WI  53538-0800
Tel (920) 563-9571  Fax (920) 563-7395
EMAIL bguetzkow@highsmith.com


----------
From:   PaulMmn[SMTP:PaulMmn@ix.netcom.com]
Sent:   Tuesday, December 30, 1997 8:08 PM
To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject:        Re: An odd thing

>on 12/30/97at 12:34 AM,  our friend PaulMmn <PaulMmn@ix.netcom.com> said:
>
>
>>I -did- find that, after writing in RPG for quite a while, the logic in
>>my COBOL programs seemed to resemble the RPG Cycle.   (:
>
>>--Paul E Musselman
>
>Paul, I am curious:  At that time it must have seemed like a "good
>thing"(tm).  But, now in hindsight do you still feel it was a good thing?
>
>I ask because so often it seems like people make fun of using the RPG
>cycle, and when they do it makes me feel just a little bit older again.
>
>----------------------------------------------------
>Booth Martin
>---------------------------------------------------



A 'good thing?'  Yes.  The RPG cycle is still a nice, solid basic structure
onto which you can hang the logic of your program.

Writing in COBOL, I had to, of course, 'fill in' the pieces that IBM would
normally handle.

The Cycle follows a logical course:  Input, Processing, Output.  I've got a
programming template for HIPO, that was evidently used to build programs
using that basic logic:  Input, Processing, Output.

Even now the RPG Cycle still does as good if not a better job of creating a
simple report program than do-it-yourself logic.  Imagine-- using a Report
Program Generator to generate report programs!  (:

It's when you get into complicated processing logic that it may be better
to 'roll your own' logic.  Then again...  why?  The Cycle always did a good
job for complicated update programs.  Or am I living in the past?

Why is it considered 'unmanly' to let RPG handle the logic for you?

--Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@ix.netcom.com


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