Re: RPG,COBOL or JAVA -- MIDRANGE-L

Uttam--

>I just want to know is it [Java] the bread for the future AS400
programmers. Your suggestions will be very help for me

Put away your cynical Java beliefs (you can put them in the closet with
mine!), Java is here to stay for the AS/400. It is nearly impossible to
understate IBM's and, more in our cases, specifically, the AS/400's
division's, investment in Java.

Tom Jarosh, General Manager of the AS/400 division recently stated that IBM
has given up trying to "modernize" the currently available 24K+ AS/400
applications. He said Java is the future for AS/400 programming development
and that IBM is identifying the 150 most important applications for the
AS/400 and wants to get them to Java ASAP. The Gartner Group, apparently
believing deeply in what Jarosh is saying, predict that by 2003, 40% of
AS/400 applications will be written in Java. Religious language convictions
aside, it's pretty clear that RPG and COBOL are dead for _new_ application
development. Yes, there will RPG and Cobol maintenance work for many
years--but the interesting work and fast path to the most AS/400 programmer
income will be with Java. Today, it is mutually exclusive to say you believe
in the AS/400 but not Java. If the AS/400 Java initiative fails, so does the
AS/400. The AS/400 has no fall-back application development strategy.

If you're an AS/400 programmer, and expect to be one in five years, it's
important to start adding Java skills to your programming utility belt. It's
unfortunate that IBM has such a heavy-handed Java strategy for AS/400
programmers today. Remember IBM's hamburger flipper from a couple of months
ago in NEWS/400? (the upshot==learn Java or resign yourself to flipping
hamburgers for a living). For the existing programmer base, IBM doesn't have
many tools or programs in place to take these programmers by the hand and
ease them forward into the next generation of AS/400 AD tools.

Java cynics today can argue, and perhaps rightfully so, that Java just
doesn't perform well enough natively to be used as a line-of-business
application development language. That may be today, but over the next
couple of years, IBM will nearly quadruple the clock speed of the AS/400 CPU
and be putting multiples of this high-powered processor in even low-end
AS/400s. Don't impose today's AS/400 design and performance model absolutely
on Java--as time goes on, several points will converge to make Java a
realistic and competitive AS/400 performer.

If you are an RPG coder today and want a fast path into Java (this advice
may even apply a little to Cobol programmers), stop what you're doing and
get a copy of Advice Press's Java for RPG Programmers by Phil Coulthard and
George Farr. This isn't the only Java book you'll need, but for RPG
programmers, it is the first one you need!

Note to RPG grizzly bears:
Don't come back with angry retorts that RPG _is_ good enough and that you
can write great applications in RPG. I didn't say you couldn't. The problem
is, what you can't do with those applications is sell them! The issue really
isn't whether RPG or Cobol are really dead or not, the issue is, is Java
alive for the AS/400? And the answer is yes, very much so. Fight it if you
want to, but application development choices are about to fundamentally
change forever in the AS/400 camp.

One other note to anyone else threatened by this missive:
I am not waving the Java flag out of magazine-boy, rah rah-driven drivel.
Nope, I'm very cynical about many aspects of Java and think IBM has a tough
road ahead to connect all the dots to make Java live up to all its
claims--especially on the AS/400. But after more than a year of dabbling and
coding, I'm slowly but surely becoming a believer in many of the values and
benefits of Java. I used to argue that book stores should be made to put all
the Java books in the science fiction section--and move them to the computer
section only after Java becomes viable. Today I don't think so--it appears
now that Java is well on its way to earning that spot in the computer
section.

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