Re: What bugs you about KLISTs in RPG IV?

[DAsmussen@xxxxxxx]

Jon,

In a message dated 6/18/99 9:18:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Jon.Paris@halinfo.it writes:

>  >> The AS/400 needed a "cool" language, and RPG could have been it in a 
free
>  form version.
>  
>  Sorry but I think you're wrong.  Java on the 400 means that folks who find 
Java
>  sexy may find their way to the 400. RPG would never have been sexy to such
>  people in any form (and certainly not with the RPG/free syntax). In other 
words
>  it would only have appealed to existing AS/400 users - and if we couldn't
>  persuade them, what was the point.

You are probably right.  It's just that most non-RPG people's aversion to the 
language seems to stem from:  A) the cycle (a moot but nonetheless 
oft-mentioned excuse), and B) the fixed format.  No other language has the 
latter although frankly, at least it forces conventions upon those that would 
prefer to enter an entire program as a single sentence ;-).

>   >> Most of that "majority" couldn't find this list with both hands and a
>  flashlight
>  
>  Au contraire, quite a few of the people I include in that category _are_ 
on this
>  list.  Like me they personally believed that free-form was the way to go 
but
>  (also like me) were convinced that at that point in time it wouldn't fly.  
I
>  won't name them because unlike some people I could mention, I respect the
>  confidentiality agreements we signed with some of those folks.

Hmmm.  Well, I wasn't there.  As you stated earlier, a story to be told 
later, eh?  With the overwhelming support for it on this thread, I cannot see 
how "free" wouldn't fly today.  Your respect for confidentiality is to be 
applauded...

Regards,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist -- the 
taxidermist leaves the hide." -- Mortimer Caplin
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