Re: Adding pointers to RPG language.

[Scott Klement <klemscot@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 15 Jan 2002 boldt@ca.ibm.com wrote:
>
> But, if you're doing a largely compute-bound program, you're
> basically in the realm of "systems programming".  (I know that's
> a bit of a simplification.)  Systems programming is best done
> with a systems programming language, such as C.  RPG is better
> suited to applications, which are generally I/O bound.  It all
> falls back to using the right tool for the job.

I can't afford to train my staff in both RPG and C.   In the Midrange
arena C programmers are rare and expensive.  (Though, that's not true in
the PC arena)   Sure, some of my RPG programmers have already learned C
on their own accord, and we certainly encourage that sort of thing -- but
to require it?  That's something else.

Certainly a huge, computer-based, company like IBM can afford to "use the
right tool for the job".   But, my company's primary business is making
sausage, not software.   I need a single language that can do everything
we need to do.

We have over 20 years of RPG code on our system.  All of our programmers
are very familiar with RPG.   If I throw pointers, APIs, etc into an RPG
program, they have only to learn one new thing -- if I write the same
program in C, they have to learn an entire language.

So, when I "use the right tool for the job" I use RPG.


>
> On the other hand, if that particular program is part of a
> larger I/O bound application, then what't the advantage to
> low-level coding to improve performance?  And aren't all
> applications on the iSeries somehow involved with a database?
> Ultimately, all applications involve I/O of some sort, since
> heavy use of memory will generally involve paging.
>

I don't generally use pointers to improve performance.   I use them
because they're the best/only way to accomplish a task.