Re: New RPG programmers

[Jonathan Mason <masonjo1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I hat to say it, but there are a few grey hairs coming through (although I put 
them down to my wife and kids rather than the 19 years RPG and System 36, /38 
and AS/400 use).

The only "educational" establishments I've ever come across over here in the UK 
that do RPG are commercial training companies, or places like IBM with a vested 
interest.  Back in the late 80's and early 90's there used to be a company 
called Nova that would provide AS/400 and RPG training and then the students 
would be placed at a company and work there for 6 months or a year without pay. 
 They would still get their social security and the only obligation from the 
company they were placed at was that if they performed well they had to be 
considered for a position at the end of the placement.

I have noticed, though, that it's not so much the programmers over here that 
don't want to learn new techniques, it's the employers who don't want to invest 
in the "new technology".  There tends to be a lot of "if it's not broken, don't 
fix it" and in one shop I worked at the move to RPG IV was only for a handful 
of programs in a specific project that needed to bypass the RPG/400 field size 
restrictions.

I don't think that even IBM would be crazy enough to kill off RPG, there are 
just too many legacy systems out there with their major customers that need 
support.  I've still got 25 years left before I officially retire, and I'm 
confident I'll still be working in RPG something or other on whatever IBM's 
latest rebranding comes up with.

All the best

Jonathan



Jonathan Mason
www.astradyne-uk.com