RE: AS/SET - who needs RPG? -- RPG400-L

I *used* to be a hardcore AS/SET programmer.  Waaaay back in college I
learned RPG II and then never had the occasion to touch RPG for 15 years.
The years in between were spent coding in Basic (or all things).  When we
migrated out of PC-based systems to the AS/400 where we had other
applications I wrote a couple of programs in RPG/400, even one with a
subfile.  Then along came AS/SET and we were encouraged to use it.  ...so I
did.  I got used to it.  I got good at it.  I didn't copy and modify
existing RPG code, I created new programs from scratch and it was fast and
easy.

As time moved on AS/SET didn't keep up with the times and neither did I.
Hardcore RPGers didn't like the AS/SET RPG code and we were then
discouraged from using AS/SET.  I had just wrote my first non-AS/SET
program when the economy got really bad and I was forced to find new
employment.  Now I code in ILE RPGand will probably make the /FREE jump
pretty soon.  Things are a lot better now in the RPG world than they were
when I first started using AS/SET.  Had I not changed jobs I would probably
would have made the switch but I would have still probably gone back to
AS/SET if I had to do something in a hurry.  AS/SET helped me bridge the
gap between Basic and RPG although I had already started down the RPG path
on my own.  Ideally, I wish that I would have never learned AS/SET in the
first place because I would be a lot further along in RPG than I am now.

Dave Parnin
Nishikawa Standard Company
Topeka, IN  46571
daparnin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx




                                                                                
                              
                      "DeLong, Eric"                                            
                              
                      <EDeLong@Sallybea        To:       CN=RPG programming on 
the AS400/O=iSeries            
                      uty.com>                  
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                      10/24/2003 09:41         Subject:  RE: AS/SET - who needs 
RPG?                          
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                      Please respond to                                         
                              
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                      <rpg400-l@midrang                                         
                              
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My first exposure to RPGIII was at a S36 shop turned as400 that bought into
the Synon promotions....  Not a great way to learn, but it definitely
changed my perspective... <vbg>  Synon at least got me started thinking in
modular terms, but the generated code was enough to drive you batty.... <g>

Guess that explains alot... ;)

Eric DeLong
Sally Beauty Company
MIS-Project Manager (BSG)
940-898-7863 or ext. 1863



-----Original Message-----
From: rob@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:rob@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 9:26 AM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: AS/SET - who needs RPG?


Bill,

I changed the subject :-)

I've never met anyone in that boat.  However I did hear of a COBOL shop
that moved to an iSeries that bought AS/SET to smooth out the RPG learning
curve.  Being a former board member of the AS/SET Users Group, I can tell
you that there were shops using AS/SET that never purchased BPCS.

I don't use AS/SET anymore, but in it's day I think developers would have
been better off if they had generated the source into QTEMP and never
looked at it.  By concentrating on the finished product is where it had
it's benefit.  Looking at the source didn't allow you to see the forest
through the trees.

Rob Berendt
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin


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