RE: Modernising the AS/400 WAS: external *PRTF -- RPG400-L

Well said.

-----Original Message-----
From: Buck Calabro [mailto:buck.calabro@aptissoftware.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2000 2:27 PM
To: rpg400-l@midrange.com
Subject: RE: Modernising the AS/400 WAS: external *PRTF


Dan Bale wrote:

>Any opportunity to learn new techniques / technology 
>must be done pretty much on my own time.  I have 
>three young kids, so there has to be a balance.

Man, I hear you there!  I have never had an employer who said 
to me "Hey,
take a week off of production work and read up on ReXX.  Tell 
us what you
think of it..."  My two children are teenagers, and I surely 
understand the
burden of time that work places on my life with my family.  I 
either worm
the new stuff in during a project or spend an hour a day "after 
hours" to
tinker.

>Plus, it would be extremely helpful to know that I 
>will actually be able to use what I'm learning in the 
>real world.  I haven't seen a whole lot of openings 
>for AS/400 Java programmers (read: none) in the Detroit area.

My eyes were opened after reading several modern books on programming in
general.  I really think that every programmer should read 
Bruce McConnell's
book "Code Complete."  What you learn isn't so much "how to 
make Java or C
or Pascal  do what you want" so much as "why should I avoid global
variables?  How do I decide to make a code fragment into a function or
procedure?"  Literally, these ideas are usable in any environment, any
language.

>It's nice that you have a boss that gives you the freedom 
>to choose your "weapons".  Some of us aren't so fortunate.  
>I try to urge the laggards along, but usually hit the F.U.D. wall.

I probably should not say this in a public forum, but my boss 
was adamantly
against the use of RPG IV.  Period.  No debate.  I went behind 
his back and
used it anyway.  He never noticed, and the folks that need to 
maintain my
newfangled code are quite happy to do so.  Oh, not because I am 
an excellent
programmer, but because RPG IV is so much easier to understand simply
because my style isn't hampered by hideously cryptic variable names.

I am an old-timer who thinks (thought?) of RLU as a waste.  I 
do all my DDS
for printer files by hand.  I will re-examine RLU now that I've seen the
posts here, but the point is that my boss has no idea if I am using an
automated tool to design printer files or a laborious hand 
coding process.
I may be a bit subversive, but if the boss says something 
patently stupid, I
ignore him.  "Don't use a modern language like RPG IV because Dopey the
junior programmer is too dull to learn it.  Yeah, we paid for 
it, but we're
not going to use it"  My answer is "I can't read that new 
format file on the
IFS unless I use RPG IV."  

Pick your battle wisely, sure, but fight that battle.  Your own 
career is
literally on the line.  I can still read punch cards by looking at the
holes.  Oddly enough, there isn't much demand for card-reading 
programmers.
The point is that if I can't understand and use modern programming ideas
(Local storage, procedures, binding/linking) I will be rapidly 
out of a job.
I can't afford to leave my current employer, but can I really 
afford to keep
myself deliberately in the programming Dark Ages?

Ignore the laggards.  They will ALWAYS be laggards, always waiting for
somebody like you to drag them along into the future.  Helping 
and mentoring
them may be the right thing to do, but just once, I'd like to see one of
these folks take a little initiative and do some reading on 
their own.  Just
once.

I feel for you, and seriously hope that I have provided you 
with some ideas
for helping your situation.  I guess that my fanaticism comes 
from being in
the Dark Ages for so long, and now I see the light of the 
Renaissance!  I
think that it's up to us; each individual programmer to 
modernise our shop
by modernising our own thinking.  If we wait for IBM to do 
better marketing,
or for the boss to send us to school or for the laggards to become
independent learners then we suffer the fate of the blacksmith.  Highly
skilled workers, limited to an ever-shrinking niche market, leaving the
profession one at a time.

Buck Calabro
Aptis; Albany, NY
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