RE: Time to get serious

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: David Gibbs
> 
> OOP is a programming technique ... not a function that you can perform
> with a program.  (...)

I agree entirely with David.  James basically listed language syntax
features that RPG doesn't have.  You could just as well say that Java
doesn't have the RPG cycle.  I guarantee I can EMULATE every feature
James listed, just not as concisely.  Similarly, he cannot CHAIN to a
database record in any other language as concisely as I can in RPG. 

Syntax is just syntax, any program you can write in any programming
language can be written in any other programming language provided the
language has a few basic capabilities like alter and retrieve memory,
compare and branch on condition.  This has actually been proven
mathematically.  But there are things each language does better
syntactically.

And that is the gist of the conversation.  The argument (and I should
know, since it's MY damned argument) is that RPG is THE BEST language
for writing procedural business rules.  Better than Java, better than C,
better than BASIC, better than SQL.  I have provided numerous examples
of this over the years, from MRP generation to price lookups to batch
balancing.

NOTHING beats RPG for defining and implementing database-driven business
logic.  Oh, there may be some esoteric pattern matching LISP derivative
that's better for some specific problem, but for general business logic,
RPG RULES.  And if you aren't programming business logic, you probably
don't need an iSeries anyway.

Joe