Re: NT vs AS/400 -- MIDRANGE-L

Hi Nathan,

Your points are valid, and I tend to agree with most of what you've written.
I wasn't really trying to single out RPG in my observation. It's just that
the language is so predominant on the AS/400, that it seemed natural to
correlate demand for RPG programmers to demand for AS/400 servers. Rest
assured that I'm not trying to start an RPG .vs. SomeOtherLanguage thread!

This whole discussion has been interesting. I learned some things that I
didn't know, and discovered a few different ideas that I need to explore
further. It's too bad that we weren't able to get any of the IBMr's involved
though. I'll bet they must just sit back and shake their heads when they
read some of the things that we come up with. :)

It was a good exchange. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.


John Taylor
Canada

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nathan M. Andelin" <nathanma@haaga.com>



> A year or so ago, Roger Pence advised in one of his columns that RPG was
> dying.  I think people have been predicting the death of RPG since its
first
> release.  A record of  RPG compiler sales over the past decade might
> strengthen one's ability to predict.  I don't think IBM shares that
> information with the public.  On the other hand, IBM continues to enhance
> RPG.  And one member of the RPG Compiler team stated in answer to my query
> about the Roger Pence article, that more people were doing more things
with
> RPG than at any time in its history.
>
> Part of my fastination with RPG is its stability.  Let me illustrate with
an
> example.  I'm familiar with a large hotel in Salt Lake City that runs most
> of its business with home-grown RPG programs.  Reservations.  Check in.
> Check out.  Movie Rentals.  Credit Card Authorizations and Clearing.
> Accounting.  Financial Reports.  Even the electronic locks and door keys
are
> ultimately controlled by RPG programs.  One interesting point, is that
much
> of the code for the system was written in the mid to late 80's.  This is a
> perfect example of lower cost of ownership.  If the original code had been
> written on an Intel platform, it would have probably gone through multiple
> iterations of rewrites by now.
>
> One more interesting point.  The AS/400 that supports the Hotel System,
> along with about 20-30 active terminals has only 96 meg of RAM.  That
> underscores the efficiency of RPG.  The use of RPG is probably a drop in
the
> bucket in comparison to Visual Basic.  But my feeling is that RPG programs
> probably run more critical operations than VB programs.  At least in
> business settings.
>
> I previously considered the lack of a GUI to be a major RPG handicap.  I
was
> explaining this to one of my non-technical coleagues and suggested that he
> might be interested in learning Visual Basic.  Ironically both of us were
> working on a Web based Reservation System for the hotel I mentioned in the
> example above.  He was representing the user group that sponsored the
> system.  I was using CGI at the time.  He looked at the browser and said.
> Well, isn't that an RPG GUI?
>
> I don't know for sure whether RPG has been dying, or not.  One thing I do
> know is that Web technologies, and a browser based GUI, have the potential
> of breathing new life into RPG.  It makes sense to move more function back
> to the server rather than out to the client.  The trick is to come up with
a
> framework that makes a Web interface as easy to write and maintainable as
a
> 5250 screen.
>


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