Re: MIDRANGE-L Digest, Vol 6, Issue 1954

Steve Richter wrote:

Hmmm... I realized that Hans (Welcome back!) was valuable to this
list. But I had no idea that he was so critical to all of IBM
development! He tires of a job and the future is illuminated...

I.e., what? Isn't this merely one IBM employee's personal choice?

was Hans replaced when he left the RPG group?

Steve:

A reasonable question with debatable relevance.

Did he need to be replaced? I would certainly hope he didn't.

With advancements from the past decade, a replacement shouldn't be needed. Code libraries/repositories should be populated far more densely. IDEs, etc., should be far more productive as tools. The compilers, etc., should be easier to modify and enhance.

Now that we're well past all that was done to create Version 3 of OS/400 and related LPPs, we should all hope that IBM develops using techniques and methods that leverage what Hans and all the others might have done previously. Now that Version 6 is being polished for release, we should all hope that much of it was done just as we all should be doing our work.

In V5R4, I can create some pretty major SQL CLI apps using nothing but ILE CL. That includes (almost) full green-screen function with DSM APIs. That's not an assertion that that's the right thing to do, but only that my tools have become more capable. I would hope that IBM's internal development tools have also undergone some level of improvement so that the current RPG-group can get more done as well. I would hope that the RPG-group has been given the ability to do more per person.

Would it be good news or bad news if Hans wasn't replaced?

I guess it depends on whether or not a replacement was needed. Maybe the current RPG-group can do far more with less expense because of what Hans and others left behind.

Isn't that a major point of what's happened in recent years? /Must/ everything always take more money and more people?

Tom Liotta