RE: RPG400-L Digest V2 #124

[Buck Calabro <buck.calabro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nelson Smith wrote:

>I'm not complaining, I love all the new features of 
>ILE and use them heavily.  I just haven't figured 
>out how to handle this training situation with just 
>ILE procedures yet, much less real objects.  

If the procedures are too complicated to easily understand, they are too
complicated and should be decomposed some more.  This mindset is VERY
difficult for a traditional RPG programmer like myself to adopt.  This habit
is one of the most valuable that I have started to cultivate.

>The 30 or 40 BIF's that IBM has given us is hard 
>enough to get everyone trained on without even looking 
>at all the home-grown ones that I build.  And even if I 
>did get everyone trained on them, they would not be 
>available at their next shop.
>
>How does everyone else address this issue?

I just use the BIFs.  If other folks in the shop aren't familiar with them
yet, they will become familiar after seeing them working  in production
code.  As for the home-grown stuff, when I create a program that requires
binding, the first thing I do is revoke object exist authority to the
program object.  Now some unsuspecting programmer can't accidentally delete
it.  Additionally, I put comments at the top of the code, describing how to
re-make the program.  Finally, I'll create a "make" CL program to re-build
the lot.

As for actually using procedures, I've found that if you explain them as
being a cross between subroutines and programs, the concept comes pretty
easily to newly exposed programmers.

This sloppy approach to training "works" because this is how 80%+ of RPG
programmers learnt RPG in the first place.  Looking at existing code is the
number one source of education and training in most shops.  I have never
heard of a shop that has an active program to bring each and every
programmer to a specific (high) level of training.  If there were such a
shop, I'm sure this thread would not be an issue there.

Buck Calabro
Aptis; Albany, NY
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