Re: Time to get serious

Joe,

Bear in mind as I ask this question that:

1.  I am under 35
2.  I am a fan of RPG

I'm a manager (don't hold it against me) in a shop that's growing
fairly quickly.  It is extremely difficult to get the RPG talent we
need.  Schools are not teaching the language, so it's tough to find
the young talent we'd like to build our base on.  It's tough to find
experienced programmers because the ones you want are already in good
jobs they don't want to leave.

We're teaching it to everyone we can, but I'm worried that we won't be
able to attract enough talent to keep growing at the rate we'd like. 
What can we do?

Mike E.



On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 20:10:02 -0600, Joe Pluta
<joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> All fine and good, but RPG is a hell of a language WITHOUT all the new
> stuff, Michael.  The concept of navigational database access within a
> procedural language is absolutely crucial to learning proper programming
> and database design, and you don't need procedures and BIFs and /free
> for that.
> 
> Not that I dislike the new features; I think they make the language
> easier to use and, what the hell, they may even attract those
> programmers who don't know that the data type "Boolean" comes from
> Boolean logic.  But RPG is a great language, has been for decades, and
> continues to grow and evolve in ways that few other languages can match.
> 
> Joe
> 
> > From: Michael Ryan
> >
> > I agree. The majority of programmers either don't know about RPG or
> have a
> > preconceived notion based on long ago experience. And who should be
> blame
> > for this? Well...look around at the RPG programmers you know. How many
> are
> > comfortable using built-in functions? Procedures? ILE? Free form?
> Mixed
> > case statements for crying out loud?