RE: "RPG isn't cool" (was: Re: IBM Secret) -- MIDRANGE-L

I think a lot of it is what you're used to.  I can remember arguing with a
co-worker about the merits of free form (with eval) calculations vs RPG
Classic.  He claimed (and I believe him) that he could read a complex
calculation expressed in a sequence of add, sub, mult, div instructions with
a bunch of temporary variables as easily as the same thing in algebraic
notation.  I like free form, but RPG wasn't my first language.  What I'd
like to see is support for both free form and positional source. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stone, Brad V (TC) [mailto:bvstone@taylorcorp.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 1999 6:18 AM
To: 'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'
Subject: RE: "RPG isn't cool" (was: Re: IBM Secret)


I understand your concerns.  I was just expressing what I would like.  I,
like you suggest, was trained in Modula-II, C++, etc.  I wasn't even shown
RPG until my last year of college, and then my internship.  I loved it.  And
it was right when RPG/IV was a very hyped new feature "coming soon!".
Needless to say, I couldn't wait.

The only reason i would like free format, long field names, etc, is because
they would make the code more self-documenting, to me at least.  (please, no
wars on self-documentation.)

Bradley V. Stone
Taylor Corporation - OASIS Programmer/Analyst   
bvstone@taylorcorp.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: boothm@ibm.net [SMTP:boothm@ibm.net]
> Sent: Monday, May 10, 1999 7:12 PM
> To:   MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject:      RE: "RPG isn't cool" (was: Re: IBM Secret)
> 
> Brad, I have wondered about this solution in context with another issue. 
> I have noticed that people with C++ training are either good and in the
> top 5% of their class or else not good enough to make a living as a
> programmer.  
> 
> RPG on the other hand is easy and clear enough so that almost anyone with
> the qualifications to get enrolled in a college's RPG class has a good
> chance of passing with good grades and getting a good job with a
> productive programming future.  In my opinion much of that characterisitic
> is due to the very nature of RPG's structure.  Therefore my conclusion is
> that free flowing form is not a plus for the middle and bottom of the bell
> curve.   RPG is not an elitist's programming language, it is a working
> man's tool. 
> 
> Spoken from somewhere in the middle of the bell curve.
> 
> 
> In <4EC96B864C1CD211BBC500805FE6FDBC1B4E13@tcexch1.taylorcorp.com>, on
> 05/10/99 
>    at 10:14 AM, "Stone, Brad V (TC)" <bvstone@taylorcorp.com> said:
> 
> >> Now, let's assume that being "cool" is a desirable
> >> quality in a programming language.  If we were to try to
> >> change RPG from an "uncool" language to a "cool" language,
> >> is there a single easy thing we could do to improve the
> >> language?
> >> 
> >[Bradley V. Stone]  Free format would be the biggest help.  Getting rid
> >of limits to sizes of file names, field names, variables, etc would the
> >the second.  
> 
> -- 
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> boothm@ibm.net
> Booth Martin
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> 
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