RE: RPG IV and CF-spec "keep it IBM"

Seems to me that the reason "tech savvy managers" aren't moving to RPGIV in
droves is lack of compelling immediate business need.  I don't think it has
any connection with their degree of technical sophistication; it's just the
lack of a good case that moving to RPGIV (and ILE, for that matter) will
either save money or increase profits in the short run. 

I'm not sure that that's a good strategy for the long run.  Let's have a
show of hands from those who installed a new 6000 line cycle program in the
last year.  It's already hard to find people who are comfortable with RPGII.
I suspect that in the future that will be true for RPGIII as well.
Personally, I find that after a couple years of using RPGIV, RPGIII is a bit
confusing.

Where I work, until 1997, the standard spreadsheet was Lotus 2.2 and the
standard word processor was WordPerfect 5.1.  We finally moved to the
microsoft products and windows because we didn't have much choice.  The
compelling immediate business need was that it was too expensive to remove
windows 95 from each new PC and install good old DOS 3.3.  Besides, it was
hard to find people who were comfortable with DOS in any form.  
  
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Cozzi [mailto:cozzi@rpgiv.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 6:36 PM
> To: RPG400-L@midrange.com
> Subject: RE: RPG IV and CF-spec "keep it IBM"
> 
> 
> Buck,
> 
> If tech savvy managers are not moving to RPG IV because they 
> don't have
> programmers who will be able to maintain it (as suggested in 
> several other
> posts) how will adding yet another flavor (the CF-spec) enhance the
> manager's willingness to use RPG IV? I believe it will not. 
> It will have the
> opposite effect, hence my dislike of introducing the CF-spec 
> today. Perhaps
> after a few years of RPG IV code, if people want to go the 
> 'RPG V' route,
> then sure, go ahead, but in today's world, CF-spec will kill RPG IV.
> 
> But, hey I only speak from talking to thousands and thousands of RPG
> programmers, not a few dozen respondents from this mailing 
> list (as IBM
> apparently does).
> 
> 
> 
> Bob Cozzi
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