Re: RPG TALENT--Global issue

>Most of the AS/400 shops run some packaged software (JDE, BPCS,
>JBA etc.) for their mission critical applications. Source code for these
>apps is still RPG. Consequently, any custom mods, extensions will be
>done in RPG. The programming language of choice will probably be defined
>by the package vendors. Porting the apps to Java will be a major
>re-write for these vendors. Will the benefits outweigh the effort??

"Write once, run anywhere" is Nirvana for software developers - especially
the larger ones (smaller software developers might not appreciate the
competition that this brings). The benefits of having a standard code base
to companies like JDE, SSA etc are huge - how do you think companies like
SAP got to be so big. Not with RPG. Whether the code base will be pure Java
is an academic debate; I think it's more likely to be C/C++ for server type
functions and Java for clients. The benefits to the customer are the long
awaited platform independence, bigger choice, competition etc. Ask your
software vendor how many major new applications they're writing in RPG -
the smart answer is "none". 

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