RPG IV Usage (was dds validity check)

Jon Paris wrote:

>> Jeez, do you really think that 70% of the AS/400 
>> universe is using RPG/IV?

>But then the stagnant shops can't really be counted 
>anyway - they are already well on their way to being 
>replaced by an NT "solution" it is only a matter of time!!  
>If you don't progress you die - - that simple.

Jon I love you to pieces but it is far from being "that simple."  My last
job was wholesale distribution.  Very low margin.  They absolutely
completely utterly refuse to upgrade or enhance anything that isn't forced
on them by legislation or competition.  There's not enough return on
investment otherwise.

This company has never had a losing quarter.  They continue to run System/3
era batch reports in a typical System/3 "end of day" process.  Their
business processes haven't changed since the '70s and neither has their
code.  They ran a S/3 some 5 years after hardware maintenance was
discontinued (payroll, G/L, etc.) because they bought a parts machine very
cheap.   They switched to S/38 only because the S/3 was ultimately too small
to support the business.  Ditto for the AS/400.  No PC network - dumb
terminals are much cheaper to purchase and there is zero end user training.


The antique AS/400 code will not be replaced by NT any time in this decade.
Not even in a buyout (which has happened twice already.)  The new parent
lets them run "as is" as long as they make money.

I can't believe that wholesale distribution is the only industry like this.
Especially in the "small company" category.  For every "progressive" Sysco
there are a hundred small companies running old stable code that won't go
NT.

The platform's stability fosters that kind of lethargy, I guess.

Buck Calabro
Aptis; Albany, NY
"Nothing is so firmly believed as
 that which we least know" -- Michel Montaigne
Visit the Midrange archives at http://www.midrange.com
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