Re: Advantages of RPG

Joe,
I have a question regarding a comment you made:

"Bidirectional parameters are one thing many languages lack. Another is
the SELECT statements; perhaps the best implementation ever of
conditional logic trees."

Now, you know me well enough to know that I am a huge supporter of RPG,
and hell I still call it an AS/400, if for no other reason than to piss
off a person who shall remain nameless......

but back to the discussion.....your statement of "perhaps the best
implementation ever..." are you referring to the SELECT statement
specifically or the group as a whole? The reason I ask is that
SELECT-ENDSL is the same as SELECT CASE-END SELECT is it not?

If I am off the mark on this, please feel free to correct me.





From:
Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To:
RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date:
06/23/2008 10:58 AM
Subject:
Re: Advantages of RPG



Buck wrote:

'Best' is a word that needs qualification. If your business is centred
round producing full colour reports with graphics (say a utility bill)
then RPG has some very distinct shortcomings. Someone who has never
tried doing that will probably try to take me to task for writing that.

Nobody's going to take you to task. You're just being a little narrow.
If color graphics is all that your business is, then RPG is not the
language for you. If your business is writing game software, RPG is
also not your language. If, however, your business is applying business
rules based on external conditions, especially when that logic is
altered by database settings, then RPG is your best choice, hands down.

And that mini-description above is pretty much the definition of most
enterprise business applications. Color graphic reporting is definitely
a business *function*, and I agree that RPG's not well suited for it.
But that's nothing new; I believe that a browser interface is an
integral function of many business applications, and RPG is a horrible
language for that as well.

But that doesn't diminish RPG's pre-eminent position as the best
business rules processing language available.

'For business logic' is a bit vague... what language can't execute an
'IF...ELSE' clause, or a 'DO... WHILE'? Business decisions really
aren't all that difficult. Tedious to implement, maybe, but difficult?

Bidirectional parameters are one thing many languages lack. Another is
the SELECT statements; perhaps the best implementation ever of
conditional logic trees.

Joe