Re: Death of the RPG Programmer

That must be the reason the Governments past investigations of IBM as to
unfair trade practice (monopoly) turned up little. I guess the
Government realized that IBM could never take over the world if they
couldn't agree on where to start.

Colin Williams wrote:
> 
> Im doing an IT course, and part of that looks into the history of the
> IBM PC and IBM itself.
> Whats clear is that the divisions within IBM seem to compete with each
> other, as much as they do with other companies.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Al Barsa, Jr. [mailto:barsa2@ibm.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2000 4:26 PM
> To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject: RE: Death of the RPG Programmer
> 
> At 09:50 AM 06/13/2000 -0500, you wrote:
> 
> When you listen to IBM talk about our awesome Java Performance on the
> AS/400, and how they benchmark it against everything else under
> the sun (I
> could have chosen to use a capital "S", but decided to be more
> generic.),
> what you don't hear them talk about is how well Java performs
> compared to
> RPG.  RPG, for traditional processing, knocks the socks off
> Java, but IBM
> is scared to say so.
> 
> If IBM ever chose to market the AS/400, they would not only
> devastate the
> remainder of the computer industry, but also the remainder of
> IBM, and they
> know it!
> 
> Al
> 
> > >My own opinion is that it is a dip following on from Y2K, but I think
> > >its a dip that RPG will not recover from. Cross-train now!
> >
> >Many of the consultants in the past were actually staffing positions.
> >Companies
> >did this for the most part because they were not able to find
> enough permanent
> >people. That seems to have been completely reversed with many former
> >consultants taking full time positions.
> >
> >I think many companies have had their IT budgets trimmed this
> year after the
> >Y2K expenditures of the past few years. The money available is
> not targeted
> >at ERP but rather "e" technologies.
> >
> >Because of the increase in staff, I think a lot of companies
> are allowing
> >their
> >staff to develop web projects rather than bring in consultants do this.
> >
> >As far as cross training goes, we should be constantly doing
> this anyway.
> >Unfortunately, I see where many RPGers have been doing their 40 a week
> >and nothing more. I think that is one reason why RPG IV was so slow to
> >catch on and why tools like Code/400 are so underused. We all know that
> >Brad hates Java, but he will also be the first to tell you to
> learn RPG IV,
> >HTML, JavaScript, etc. This includes how to use the C-APIs from RPG for
> >CGI, IFS, etc.
> >
> >Is Java and WebSphere going to be the glorious solution? Maybe
> - maybe not.
> >Should you learn them? Definitely. I've become certified in
> Java 2. I've taken
> >courses in WebSphere and practiced with it. Right now I'm
> reading a book on
> >Oracle. I've bought books on EJBs, Apache webserver and UML. I recently
> >read the book "Code Complete" that is referred to on these lists.
> >
> >I don't believe the RPG programmer is dead. I do believe that
> the days where
> >RPG programmers can be complacent and not learn anything new are dead.
> >If you are not good at RPG IV, then that is one area that you
> should start on
> >immediately. Get the book "Java for the RPG Programmer"
> regardless if you
> >are going to learn Java or not. E-business is not just a
> passing fancy. There
> >are 2 good books that you need to get. Brad Stone's "e-RPG" and Bob
> >Cancilla's "e-business with AS/400". Get familiar with XML as
> I think this
> >technology will continue to emerge. Learn a GUI development
> tool so that
> >you understand how that works (VB, VA/RPG, Java, etc.).
> >
> >If you don't subscribe to a trade rag (i.e. News/400 or
> MidrangeComputing),
> >then start. Read it each month, all articles. Try out the code
> to see what
> >it does and how it works.
> >
> >Joe Teff
> >+---
> >| This is the Midrange System Mailing List!
> >| To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com.
> >| To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com.
> >| To unsubscribe from this list send email to
> MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
> >| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator:
> david@midrange.com
> >+---
> 
> +--------------------------------------------------+
> | Please do not send private mail to this address. |
> | Private mail should go to barsa@ibm.net.         |
> +--------------------------------------------------+
> 
> Al Barsa, Jr. - Account for Midrange-L
> Barsa Consulting, LLC.
> 400 > 390
> 
> Phone:          914-251-1234
> Fax:            914-251-9406
> http://www.barsaconsulting.com
> http://www.taatool.com
> 
> +---
> | This is the Midrange System Mailing List!
> | To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com.
> | To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com.
> | To unsubscribe from this list send email to
> MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
> | Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator:
> david@midrange.com
> +---
> +---
> | This is the Midrange System Mailing List!
> | To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com.
> | To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com.
> | To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
> | Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
> +---

--
L. S. Russell Programmer/Analyst
Datrek Professional Bags, Inc.
2413 Industrial Drive
Springfield, TN. 37172
mailto:leslier@datrek.com
http://www.datrek.com
--
+---
| This is the Midrange System Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---