Re: Learning RPG

Hi Jeff,

> Does anyone know where I can find some documents online to help me learn
> RPG/400?

RPG/400 is slowly being phased out.  IBM hasn't enhanced it in years, and
with any luck, it'll disappear over the next decade.  You might be able to
find documentation for it, but it's going to be older stuff.  If you're
going to learn RPG, I would not recommend starting with RPG/400.

Instead, you should be learning RPG IV (also called "ILE RPG/400", and
sometimes they'll throw the word "Websphere" in the title because they
like that word so much.)


> I have access to as400s and would like to learn as much as
> possible about programming with rpg400. I would also like to learn some
> general commands for the as400 as well as commands used in programming,
> like %trim() etc.

%trim() is part of RPG IV (ILE RPG/400) not RPG/400...

If you're already familiar with RPG/400, a good way to upgrade to ILE
RPG/400 is with the "RPG IV JumpStart" book from Bryan Meyers...  but it
doesn't sound like you're familiar with RPG/400.

Good Books for learning RPG IV from the beginning are:

"The Modern RPG IV Language" by Bob Cozzi
and
"Programming in RPG IV" by Judy Yaeger and Bryan Meyers

These are available from the Midrange.com store.  I recommend using this
store as it helps to support Midrange.com, which brings you these
wonderful (and free!) mailing lists:
   http://store.midrange.com

There's also a store on the iSeries Network, which has all sorts of
resources.  Books, e-classes, etc.
   http://www.pentontech.com/education/

(Note: I have an affiliation with the Penton/iSeries Network.)

If you don't want to spend money, and are willing to struggle a little bit
harder with the learning process, you can use IBM's documentation:

   http://www.iseries.ibm.com/

You'll want to click on your region, language, and release of OS/400.
Then, in the left-hand pane, click "Programming" then "RPG".

The "Websphere Dev Studio ILE RPG Programmers Guide" is more of a tutorial
to help you get started, the ". . . ILE RPG Reference" is a reference
manual, works more like a dictionary, you look up the op-code or
built-in-function that you're interested in, and it gives you the
specifics of that particular thing.

I see that someone else on this list recommended "Who Knew You Could do
that with RPG IV?", which is a great book, but is intended for people who
are already familiar with RPG IV, and just want to upgrade their skills.

IMHO, one of the best ways to learn is to take a program that you use on
the job... maybe you use it daily to enter data or something, and look at
the source code for it.  Look up each op-code and see what it does until
you get a feel for how the code works...

HTH