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On 2/17/2017 10:21 AM, Richard Reeve wrote:
I don't have a
specific need or application in mind. Rather I'm trying to 'catch
up' to current day technology.
Read programming books. I still like McConnell's Code Complete
despite its age. Current day technology is the web. Search out
tutorials on web stuff like the Google Maps API. Use it to plot out
(for example) customer addresses on a city map. You'll be learning
about JDBC, Javascript, Google Maps, JSON, AJAX and many more
acronyms, but you will be learning them as a means to an end, not as an end in themselves.
'Why' is more powerful than 'how'.
I've still got another 20 years in me and can't see straight
RPG/COBOL/SQL as being good enough any more.
I'm standing squarely in those shoes. In my opinion, RPG has never
been more alive than today. I can write callbacks, integrate MI, C,
and Java seamlessly. I can embed SQL solely to use SQL scalar
functions - no database I/O needed! The restrictions on name length,
array size, string size - all well beyond what I need. I can extend
SQL with functions and procedures written in RPG. I can (and do)
consume result sets in RPG
RPG is vibrant, and even though I only do back end work, it is
marvellous for virtually all of my needs. What few things I need to
do in C or MI, I wrapper in a service program so that my RPG
colleagues and I can easily consume that service.
If you haven't got access to a 7.3 machine, I strongly urge you to
rent some time on one. Mock up a few of your current major production
tables and write some RPG functions to get work done. Add triggers,
RCAC, error traps - all the things we wanted in the 80s -- we have
them right now!
One of the best things I ever did for myself was to switch to RDi some
20 years ago. A better editor enables better thinking on my part.
The current RDi, 9.5.1.1, has the first round of RPG refactoring. Not
only is RPG vibrant, but so is the editor. Along with RDi, there is
an open source add-on called iSphere, which is actively being
expanded. Another add-on called RPGUnit is a unit test framework
similar to JUnit, but you know, for RPG :-) I find that these in
combination have made me a much better programmer, even at home, where I work on Arduinos and the like.
It's a great time to be a part of the RPG ecosystem!
--
--buck
Try wiki.midrange.com!
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