RE: RPG and Web.. (was Using OO concepts in RPG) -- RPG400-L

IMHO, 

The answer to that question is of an individual nature.  What would drive that 
is determined by A) what direction does that person want to take in their 
profession and B) How secure is his/her status at said place of employment just 
learning and expounding on the language they already know?

As for myself, I am purely an AS/400 ILE/Free programmer.  However, the company 
where I am at is strongly moving to web-based applications, only utilizing the 
AS/400 for back-end processing.  So, I have two to three choices: 

1) Learn the web-based languages (java, html, vb, vbscript, etc...)
2) Dive deeper into the ILE/Free language and learn the tons of stuff I still 
don't know, hoping one day to take that to another employer.
3) Find a different career path (with the same pitfalls of course down the road)

The way the IT industry is, we could all be trying to keep learning and 
learning.  Unfortunately, the market and how business move forward ultimately 
decide the direction we must take, if they don't correspond with our career 
goals.

My 2 cents worth,

Tracy L. Ball
The Jackson Group
Sr. Programmer/Analyst 
(317) 781-4600 ext. 3107




-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Crosby [mailto:jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 1:10 PM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: RPG and Web.. (was Using OO concepts in RPG)


Hans Boldt wrote:

> To be fair, that's not an unreasonable argument. But I still like 
> playing devil's advocate, so here goes a counter argument:
> 
> Let's say your competitor down the road has a staff of two developers 
> fluent in tools that provide a definite productivity improvement. That 
> may well translate into a competitive edge for that other company. What 
> does your company do then? Push your IT staff to work harder to keep up 
> with the competition? Cut the education budget for your IT staff 
> further? Cut corners elsewhere in your company?

At what point does an IT person need to put a 'hold' on learning yet 
another programming language or latest IT stuff so he/she can actually 
learn something about the _business_?  We're all mortal and can only 
cram so much into our little heads, at least in my case.  I argue that 
at some point my being thoroughly knowledgeable about the food 
distribution business is far more beneficial to my company when I write 
software than what programming language I used.  The fact that I got it 
done and "it's just what I wanted!" is what is important.

When does a carpenter have enough tools in his/her toolbox such that 
buying another and learning how to use it is not really necessary?  When 
does an IT person have enough 'tools' in his/her toolbox such that 
buying/learning another is not really necessary as opposed to making do 
with what is already known?  I argue that is a very tough question on a 
very complex issue that has a unique answer for every carpenter and for 
every IT person.

-- 
Jeff Crosby
Dilgard Frozen Foods, Inc.
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531

The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily
the opinion of my company.  Unless I say so.



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