RE: DIM question (Was MOVE/MOVEL and %Scan)

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Jim Langston
>
> Funny, I was writing a retail store application in dBase back in 1985ish.
> dBase integrates database access even closer than RPG does.  Not that I'm
> saying, by any means, that dBase is better than RPG, just that
> you're wrong, Joe :)

<laughing>  Gz, I remember writing Foxpro applications way back when.  I
knew a guy who developed a wildly popular set of Foxpro add-ons that really
made the language sing.  Although, I have to admit, I never tried to run an
MRP gen on a million-record item file.  Did you?  .dbf files were wonderful
for their day, but I don't think they scaled quite as well as DB2/400
<grin>.


> I believe you mean, "make it by far the best language for the
> task" ... *on
> the iseries*.  That, I can agree with.

Um.  Depends.  If your argument is that RPG isn't the best language to write
business logic on a PC, I see your point, but have to differ anyway.  That's
because I don't see any need to write business applications on any other
platform.  In my mind, there's no need to have business logic on the PC, so
the fact that RPG doesn't run on the PC is a big "so what?" kind of like the
fact that RPG doesn't port well.  All my business logic is going to be on my
server, and so I want that thing to be tight, solid, integrated and as easy
to administer as possible.  I don't need questions about language, database,
communications, or whatever.  I want a rock-solid, 24/7, all-in-one OS that
at the same time insulates me from hardware changes as technology
progresses.

Nothing competes with OS/400 for that.  Nothing.  And for writing business
applications on OS/400, RPG is the best language.  So, to me, the best
environment for business application development is RPG and OS/400.  It is
far and away better than any other combination.  Anybody who DOESN'T believe
that:

1. Needs to run some benchmarks on productivity, TCO and application
robustness
2. Probably shouldn't be working with the platform

I say the latter only because if you don't believe that the platform
outperforms everything else on the market, then the negatives (lack of
portability, no native GUI, non-standard development language, and so on)
far outweigh any positives.  Get yourself a Linux box, and begone!


> On a PC, I'd be hard pressed to name the best.  It would depend
> on what type
> of business application I was writing.

Again, I don't believe any business logic should be on a PC, unless you're
talking about a completely standalone application, in which case I have no
comment, except that I'm glad I'm not writing standalone PC applications
anymore <grin>.

Joe