Re: Advantages of RPG

Well, might as well get in here and get flamed.

I think when we talk about RPG, we really have to talk about versions.

If we are talking about RPG III, it really had no advantages other than
maybe it was available and it had such a robust file I/O system that you
write the most god awful crap and still have it perform.

6 character variables, fixed format, no sub-procedures, global memory
only.

Other than the fact that it was available, it didn't offer much and
trying to write good code was like fighting your way up a raging river.
It just fought you at every turn.

When you talk about RPG/ILE though, we are talking about a completely
different animal or at least free format is. The syntax is simple and
clean, you can build small pieces of code, qualified data structures,
long names, local variables and it is the best ILE language going, both
for using and building.

At one time COBOL had a much better syntax than RPG III but now RPG/ILE
is so far ahead it isn't even funny.

For everyday I worked in RPG III I cussed and swore and keep asking why
I couldn't have the abilities that other languages had and then along
came RPG IV and ILE and I literally thought I had died and gone to
heaven. Everything I had been yelling about for years and more and there
it was. The first time that I was able to write code using a
subprocedure and watch the code melt away it was pure nirvana.

In many ways, RPG/ILE is a very clean version of "C". It has almost all
the power but none of the weakness.

When you pair RPG/ILE with SQL, you are looking at a premier business
language. Simple but very powerful. Using SQL you finally get rid of the
worst defect of RPG and that was a lack of database independence.

Java offers some wonderful things but it comes with a price of
complexity and performance. Learning Java is no simple task. C# is the
same way. There is just a ton to learn and more everyday.

My favorite things in RPG/ILE.

Long names
Qualified Data Structures.
Sub-procedures
Local Variables
Built-in functions.
Free-Format SQL

I know other languages have these things but no language is quite so
simple and clean as RPG/ILE or at least if it is written correctly.
Write RPG III in RPG IV and you are no better off than if you were in
RPG III.

Things we still need.

Better type definition (Some coming in V6R1 but still restricted).
Better SQL implementation. (Using ILE call model and not the monolith
call model).
Direct variable references to the database.

Well, that ought to get all the RPG III guys mad at me.