Re: APIs was Last RRN -- MIDRANGE-L

Booth what I am talking about are the people who continue to write in RPG II
when they have a choice. I am sorry but there are people out there like
this. I think this is deplorable. I have been programming for the past 30
years and I have tried to learn one language per year ( and I try to stay
current on all the ones I have learned provided they have not gone
extinct.). There are people for whom programming is just a job and then
there are people for whom it is a passion. I am saying the AS/400 seems to
have a disproportionate number of the former.

And as far as self education goes, what is wrong with reading the manual,
paper programming and desk checking ( If you do not have an AS/400 available
to program on, and with time sharing shoot it is within anyone's means to do
this). Come up with an interesting problem and solve it. Later on solve it
better. The knowledge of such simple concepts as structured programming seem
to elude a great many people programming on the AS/400. Personally I think
the AS/400 is an awesome business computer and I think that you really can
not do any better than it. RPG has gotten a whole lot better and is now at
least brought us into the late 1970s.

I am a consultant too but if a client chooses to live in the past, well I am
not going to have my name associated with the code and will not take a
contract with them. That is the part I like about being a
contractor/consultant I can choose who I work for readily.

Again sorry for the diatribe but this is a very sore point with me.
Eric

______________________________________________
Eric N. Wilson
President
Doulos Software & Computer Services
2913 N Alder St.
Tacoma WA 98407


----- Original Message -----
From: <boothm@earth.Goddard.edu>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2000 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: APIs was Last RRN


> The tiniest bit of education?
>
> Lets see, to keep up with the AS/400 a programmer has to learn RPG, RPGIV,
> CL, DDS, Code, VARPG, System commands, TCP/IP, Client Access, and Security
> schemas.  He needs to learn packages like DBU, Progen, and Abstract/Probe.
>  On top of that he has to learn the applications and business rules of the
> organization for whom he is developing code.  Then while resting he needs
> to learn HTML, XML, and FTP.  This is not trivial, especially the way the
> AS/400 package is being enhanced.
>
> So, it is your feeling that someone that doesn't also learn C++ in his
> spare time, on his own nickel, for clients that won't allow it's use, to
> do jobs that can just as easily be done with the tools already available
> is somehow lacking the stones to be a real programmer?
>
> Sorry, I won't wear that hair shirt.
>
> _______________________
> Booth Martin
> booth@martinvt.com
> http://www.MartinVT.com
> _______________________
>
>
>
>
> "Eric N. Wilson" <doulos1@home.com>
> Sent by: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
> 06/03/2000 04:50 PM
> Please respond to MIDRANGE-L
>
>
>         To:     <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
>         cc:
>         Subject:        APIs was Last RRN
>
> I hate to say this but why oh why do AS/400 programmers not invest in at
> least the tiniest bit of self education? I am truly amazed at the lack of
> desire to learn that I have come across from time to time. This is
> something
> completely foreign to me and to most other programming platforms. I think
> the lack to RTFM also stems from this mentality.
>
> Sorry this is one of my pet peeves,
> Eric
>
> ______________________________________________
> Eric N. Wilson
> President
> Doulos Software & Computer Services
> 2913 N Alder St.
> Tacoma WA 98407
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <boothm@earth.Goddard.edu>
> To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
> Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2000 9:52 AM
> Subject: RE: Last RRN
>
>
> > I don't do API's.  My experience is that few programmers understand them
> > so later maintenance becomes a hassle for clients.  Perhaps in a few
> years
> > API's will be better understood but presently that is not the case.
> >
> > However I had 3 thoughts last night.
> >
> > 1-Don't put the K in the F-spec (you need arrival sequence)
> >
> > 2-I bet you need READ, not READP
> >
> > 3-Do you really need to recover the RRN of the last record?  I was
> trying
> > to think of a reason for needing it and couldn't think of a single need
> > for it that couldn't be solved easier another way.
> >
> >
> > _______________________
> > Booth Martin
> > booth@martinvt.com
> > http://www.MartinVT.com
> > _______________________
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > "Raikov, Lo" <RaikovL@mki.com.au>
> > 06/03/2000 02:37 AM
> > Please respond to MIDRANGE-L
> >
> >
> >         To:     "'boothm@earth.Goddard.edu '" <boothm@earth.Goddard.edu>
> >         cc:
> >         Subject:        RE: Last RRN
> >
> >  Yeah, that's better than adding and deleting the record, but I was
> > half-hoping somebody could point me to an API.
> >
> > Lo
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: boothm@earth.Goddard.edu
> > To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> > Sent: 6/3/00 11:41 AM
> > Subject: Re: Last RRN
> >
> > Would something like this work for you?  Where DB1RRN would be the RRN
> > of
> > the highest record.  I would prefer to use   C    *END   CHAIN (E)
> > but that is fairly new and you may not have it on your machine.  I
> > am unsure about the "BLOCK(*NO)" so I use it, just in case.
> >
> >
> > FGCKFL1 IF   E     K DISK    INFDS(DB1) BLOCK(*NO)
> >
> >  * Get the record Number, to know which record
> >  * to update/process:
> > D DB1             DS
> > D DB1RRN                397    400B 0
> >
> > C     *HiVal        Setll     RGCKF1
> > C                   READP     RGCKF1            58
> >
> > _______________________
> > Booth Martin
> > booth@martinvt.com
> > http://www.MartinVT.com
> > _______________________
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > "Raikov, Lo" <RaikovL@mki.com.au>
> > Sent by: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
> > 06/02/2000 03:50 AM
> > Please respond to MIDRANGE-L
> >
> >
> >         To:     "'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'" <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
> >         cc:
> >         Subject:        Last RRN
> >
> >                   Can anybody think of an easy way to obtain the highest
> >
> > used RRN in
> > a DB file? Changing the file to REUSEDLT(*NO), writing to it and
> > extracting
> > RRN from INFDS data area and then changing the file back to
> > REUSEDLT(*YES)
> > looks a bit too tricky for my taste.
> >
> >                  Lo
> > +---
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