RE: those darn newfangled languages WAS: RPG III

Even though changing D specs to a free form would most likely double the
amount of characters needing to be typed, I think it would make the RPG
language even more "embraceable"(is that a word?).  Sometimes I am
embarrassed to show my PC programming friends the code I write because they
see the column stuff and get that smirk on their face (I slap them
immediately, don't worry. Course I currently have no friends so maybe I
should change my response). 

The more I evaluate "RPG's presence" the more I get a clearer picture of
what I believe the "cost to participate" is going to be for RPG to thrive.
Here are my immediate thoughts:

1) Make the language 100% free form.  This, coupled with WDSC's color coded
LPEX editor, will go along way in many developer camps.

2) For lack of a better way to say this... Allow the environment to be
"aliased" out of its name length restrictions.  Drives me nuts to have to
use 10 char names. (yes I know this is more of system change than anything).
Add a thin layer, what ever IBM need to do, just allow that to change.

3) Build a seamless, non-Java/non-Websphere, framework that allows RPG to
incredibly easily talk to the browser (just like how our DB access is
incredibly easy).  I firmly believe that this could make non-iSeries shops
flock to the iSeries.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at Microsoft's .NET.
Take a look at Ruby On Rails.  RPG programmers don't want to have to have a
PHD in computer science and open source to be able to modernize their
iSeries apps.  They want to get'r done without layers upon layers of
technology that have layers upon layers of failure points. Sometimes
adopting community technologies (i.e. JavaServer Faces, Hibernate) isn't a
good idea because the community has never experienced a language, like RPG,
that has solid UI and DB access built right in.

4) Create a seamless proprietary protocol and write a proprietary client
that runs on Windows allowing the RPG programmer to do thick client
application development.  Included in this would be all the nice features
that a basic GUI developer would need in their back pocket (i.e. solid/easy
field validation, solid/easy list paging, solid/easy event handling, etc).
Why proprietary?  Because then IBM doesn't have to wait around for groups to
agree on things (i.e. Sun, Microsoft, etc), they simply have a thin client
much like 5250 Client Access residing on the PC waiting to render the stream
coming from the server.  Going back to point 3 above, IBM could easily
leverage the framework for web pages in this proprietary thick client.  Once
again Java/Websphere cannot be involved - cost of admission, in all areas,
is to high.

5) I never thought I would hear myself say this: A name change is in order.
Why? Because after all the above happens it would simply be incorrect to
keep the current name.  Will WE know that it is just the next generation,
yep. Will others eventually learn it, yep.  We have to come to grips with
the fact that we are a media driven culture.  Do we expect to get young
punks on board by wearing the same coat from 15 years ago?

6) iSeries boxes available to the general public.  Through recent posts on
midrange-l we can see that IBM is getting back into colleges and, from
personal experience, are bending over backwards for tools vendors.  Will be
interesting to see if this "cost to participate" increases as I believe they
are heading in the right direction.


Things that DON't need to happen:
1) Don't give the ability for RPG to run on other platforms.  Why?  Because
Microsoft has already proved that with a solid and easy to use development
environment that they can get business to do a 180 in software development
direction even though you can only run .NET on Windows (yes I know about
mono and the other utilities).

Any others that need to be added to either section (i.e. do need to happen,
don't need to happen)?

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com


-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Jon Paris
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 10:37 AM
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: those darn newfangled languages WAS: RPG III

One of Susan's arguments for using /free was that it looks more like

"modern" languages like Java and C, which the few kids coming out of college
IT courses are used to.

Since Susan doesn't hang out on this list I'll just add one comment on her
behalf.  This was not a pie-in-the-sky statement and sure as hell isn't the
IBM line since they don't recommend converting at all!

This is based on customers who have contacted us to tell us how much easier
it became to recruit new programmers once they switched to /Free.  One of
the biggest problems in the System i market place right now is the
availability of entry-level programmers.  In the last 12 months I have had a
significant number of managers tell me that they are considering a move away
from the system because they can't find affordable programmers.  (But let's
not start another discussion on that - it has been done to death on Midrange
Jobs recently!)

Most people aren't looking for just RPG skills any more.  They want some
HTML, XML, maybe Java, etc.  A young programmer who was trained in PHP,
Python, C#, Java, C++ or whatever can easily pick up RPG.  But show them
fixed-form and they'll run for the hills.  Show them /Free and they tend to
say "hey I can learn that".

Again this is not a "belief" it was something that came to us from customers
and we have been passing it along to others who face recruitment problems.
 
Jon Paris
Partner400

www.Partner400.com 

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