Re: Is RPG available on any other platform ?

IIRC, this thread _is_ about RPG on other platforms....

As Steve Martin used to say on SNL, "Well, Excuuuuuuuuuse Meeeeeeeee".  I
was posting an answer to the question that was asked.

I did not say that AVR _emulates_ VB6, I just pointed out that its IDE works
very much like Visual Studio.  This makes the learning curve for AVR very
short if you already know VB6.   I don't recall saying anything about it
being a stepping stone to VB6.

I know just enough about VB6 to be dangerous.  When I began working with
AVR, I found that the learning curve for developing applications in AVR was
short for me, a 22-year RPG programmer (S/34, S/36, S/38, AS/400), with the
sparse knowledge that I have of VB6.

I went through ASNA's tutorial in approximately 2 weeks, during which time I
developed a prototype for an application that did _both_ RPG file operations
against an iSeries database _and_ OLE DB access against an Oracle 8
database.  I also used AVR to create an ActiveX component that could be
executed by any language that can use ActiveX components.

FYI, I have also been told by VB/AVR programmers more experienced than me
that AVR has better error-handling capabilities than VB6.

Steve Landess
Austin, Texas
(512) 423-0935


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bartell, Aaron L. (TC)" <ALBartell@taylorcorp.com>
To: <rpg400-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Monday, December 30, 2002 5:24 PM
Subject: RE: Is RPG available on any other platform ?


> The one question that always looms in my mind is why would you want to
have
> something that emulates a different language so incredibly close, yet you
> don't get all of that language's benefits?
>
> For instance, if you are needing to develop GUI's for your company and you
> have the option to use languages that tout they are very similar to VB,
why
> not just use VB?  I can't imagine that ASNA's Visual RPG gets as many
timely
> updates as VB or VB.net and you also don't have as large of a community
> (Please correct me if I am wrong on either of these points).
>
> If you are using this as a stepping stone to get to VB someday I would
> consider that a heavy price to pay.  Now you have a lot of coding invested
> in a language that is rarely taught and may hold you to some of the
> restrictions that RPG imposes on you.
>
> **note** I am not a VB programmer, nor am I a ASNA's Visual RPG programmer
> so please correct me if you are not held to any of RPG's limitations, but
I
> am guessing you are because of the fact that RPG is in the name.
>
> I compare this argument to people wanting to use Webfacing which is even
> worse, because you first need to develop your app like you normally would
> with DDS and then you also have to support a JSP of sorts, and if you
change
> the JSP outside of the DDS your changes will be lost or mis-placed.
Unless
> there are other ways to do Webfacing now vs. when I was taught. . .
>
> One thing that I have found to be interesting is that some people's reason
> for going GUI isn't for additional functionality but instead for looks.
> YIKES!!
>
> Aaron Bartell
> Mankato, MN
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Landess [mailto:steve_landess@hotmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, December 30, 2002 5:01 PM
> To: rpg400-l@midrange.com
> Subject: Re: Is RPG available on any other platform ?
>
>
> I have ASNA's Visual RPG (AVR) 4.0 for Windows.
>
> I think AVR is an outstanding product for standalone, client/server, and
web
> development.  They are currently working on a version that will be
> .NET-compliant.
>
> 1) The IDE (Integrated Development Environment) looks/works almost exactly
> like that for VB6/Visual Studio.  However, because of its built-in
database
> handling (using RPG-like file operation codes), IMO it is _much_ more
> productive than using a product like VB6 with ODBC or OLE DB.
>
> 2) It comes with an iSeries-like database (Acceler8DB) for developing
> standalone applications under Windows.
>
> 3) It has the ability to access the iSeries database using RPG file
> operation codes with ASNA's DataGate/400 database engine (sold
separately).
>
> 4) It can also perform iSeries-like RPG access to SQL Server 2000
databases
> (using CHAIN, SETLL, etc.) with DataGate for SQL Server (sold separately).
>
> 5) It can also perform database access to databases such as Oracle using
OLE
> DB.
>
>
> (No commercial relationship with ASNA)
>
> Steve Landess
> Austin, Texas
> (512) 423-0935
>
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