Re: Progen

In a message dated 6/2/00 10:52:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time, jlcrosby@fwi.com 
writes:

<< I'm a 1-person MIS shop.  I have been using ProGen for years and love
 it.  I could not be doing what I am doing without it.  Not just my
 productivity has increased, but the productivity of each of my users has
 increased because I am able to create more robust interactive programs
 in far less time.  I couldn't begin to write a subfile program from
 scratch anymore, and I don't want to.  ProGen takes care of the grunt
 work so I can concentrate on the business problem.  Their tech support
 is the best I personally have encountered from any company, bar none. 
 The phone is _answered_ by tech support.  >>

I don't use Progen for this very reason. After speaking with many RPG shops 
it came to my attention that programmer who use it tend to get rusty. Which 
is not bad as long as you do not plan on looking for another job. On the 
other hand, if you go looking for another job you are limited to Progen shops.

Personally I prefer to use a skeleton program. I can't even imagine 
forgetting how to do something as simple as creating a subfile program. It 
doesn't take long to copy code from a split screen and you don't forget the 
techniques involved.

I can possibly see using Progen for QD (quick and dirty) programs but for 
myself I can create a QD using a skeleton faster than it takes my boss to 
finish his thought. Now that factors in that I've been with this company 11 
years and pretty much know what the comptroller is thinking before even he 
knows what he's thinking.

The point here is that when using a source generator program I have heard it 
is easy to get rusty on your programming skills which later in life may make 
it more difficult for you to sell yourself.

Bill
+---
| This is the RPG/400 Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to RPG400-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to RPG400-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to RPG400-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---