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Joe, I just don't see how you can even be having this opinion being that you operate in the Java world also. RPG needs enhancements to make it viable for the future! If you don't like the enhancements nobody is making you use them. If you do need enhancements then that person should take the time to learn them (which is very minimal!). I can't even believe you keep fighting this point. Do your customer's not have new requirements all the time? How do you meet those requirements with a language that moves slow because the compiler team is tasked with keeping two versions up and running because some "old timers" couldn't take a day out of their lives to learn something new. I honestly believe that you aren't weighing the whole picture. I don't know the numbers, but I have a hard time believing that we are leaving a ton of people in the dust by adding this direction of functionality to RPG. Adding your functionality to columnar RPG, IMO, would be an incredible waste of time for the compiler team. If somebody needs the new functionality they should learn something new. I just don't see how we can even be disagreeing on this point when you constantly bring up that you have written all these books and software. It just doesn't make sense. . . Aaron Bartell -----Original Message----- From: Joe Pluta [mailto:joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 9:03 AM To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries Subject: RE: Free Form RPG Opinions Wanted > From: Hans Boldt > > Sure, computer programming in general is hard. And like sculpture > and brain surgery, requires some level of inate talent. But what the > heck is wrong with trying to make the task easier? Do you think that > programming tools have to be hard just for the sake of being hard? Easier for whom? Someone who has been using the language for 20 years and now has to decide which syntax to use and has to stick /free and /end-free in his code just to use new features of the language? Or for a new programmer who doesn't want to take the time to learn the RPG syntax and is confused by something as fundamental as a MOVE instruction? And how is it your choice as the compiler writer to decide who should get preferential treatment? See, this is the part I don't get - you seem to think it's your mission in life to guide our programming habits, and this seems to be the siren song that some others have bought into: that somehow, by squeezing "bad" opcodes out of the language, you'll one day lead us non-believers into programming Nirvana. I disagree. It's not your choice to tell me whether I should use a MOVE or not, especially if I've been using it for 20 years. Removing the MOVE instruction does not make programming easier for everyone, and it certainly adds complexity to the maintenance process. These are bad things, and you choose not to see them. And yet, if your stated purpose is to remove the MOVE instruction from the language, then have the courage to say so, and offer decent migration tools to that end. Simply removing MOVE and letting us sort it all out is not the way to do it. I proposed a very simple way of letting us decide how to get there... add free-form sytntax to fixed mode, and add %MOVE and %MOVEL BIFs - neither one of these requires any significant addition, especially if you're writing reusable code the way you preach. Then, give us a converter that will convert all old-style opcodes to the equivalent "extended fixed" format. Let us clean up whatever ugly things we want, and then convert us next to the true free format. This is simply the next generation of the CVTRPGSRC that you should have provided with /free anyway. This would not be a lot to add, it would make the conversion process tons easier, and it would at least be a nod in the direction of those of us who work with the language for a living. Yes, you'd have to support at least a form of the MOVE instruction in your brave new RPG, but it would be isolated and easy to spot, and people could convert it as it makes sense to them... not you. > At the risk of sounding like a broken record, consider the Python > language. Of the programming languages in use today, it's probably > the easiest to learn and use. That ease of use is one of the biggest > reasons why some Pythonistas claim that the language offers a 10 > times productivity improvement over others. Thats 10 *times*, not > just 10 percent. If I can write a fully functional HTTP server in 3 > lines of Python code, I tend to believe that claim. To clarify my > point here, making programmers lives easier in Python's case > translates into a (quantifiable) productivity gain. > > (You could argue that much of Python's benefits arise from the rich > class library. On the other hand, the language has allowed for a > rich and easy to use class library without being overwhelming, like > the class library of one other particular OO language.) You just couldn't wait, could you? Your views are so distorted by this that I guess we need to address it. Let's analyze if Python has any use in the business world, shall we? Can you write an ERP system in Python in three lines, Hans? Write an MRP generation. Write a finite forward scheduler. Write any of those things, and I'll agree with you about Python. But see, you said it yourself, Python has a great class library - that is, other people's code. It's not the language you rave about, it's the amount of pre-written code you can call. But if the code ain't there, you can't do it. To be fair, you should only compare languages based on their base capabilities, not their class libraries, unless the class libraries happen to match what you're doing - in which case, you're really not developing anything new, you're just cloning. And that's what you're talking about, Hans - cloning. Writing yet another version of something somebody else wrote. Yep, Python clones well. But that doesn't work in my world, where I'm building unique, custom business solutions for each and every client. In my world, we actually have to design new architectures and custom solutions, not just reuse existing code. I also have to maintain existing code, and somehow figure out how to make old and new work together. I don't have the luxury of writing everything from scratch using someone else's class library. So maybe that's why you and I see things differently. You code in a laboratory, or for a hobby, with no worry about existing code. I code for a manufacturing shop that lives or dies on its software, both existing and new. Different point of view, eh? > Now then, because Python is an interpreted language and RPG is a > compiled language, RPG can never hope to match Python in usability. > But still, what's wrong in trying to make the job of the RPG > programmer easier? You want to make RPG programming easier, fine. Just do it fairly and evenly. Removing the MOVE instruction is neither. But then again, I'm going to do something you neglected to do... I'm going to ask people if they like the MOVE, and how it affects their planned adoption of free-form RPG. I'll let you know what I find out. Joe _______________________________________________ This is the RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries (RPG400-L) mailing list To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options, visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/rpg400-l or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.
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