RE: Panic is setting in... I am seeing RPG36 and OCL36... and I need tomodernize it!

In some cases changing the RPG36 or RPT36 to simply RPG will work. In other cases, it won't; been there, done that.

I looked at converters a few years ago. Linoma's seemed to be the best. There is another one (forget the name) by Applied Logic.

Frankly, I just gave up even thinking about it and left the 36 environment running. I only convert programs to ILE RPG when there is a need to do so. So, when you said you need to modernize the code, my question is, Why? If a management mandate, 'nuff said. If it's just a personal preference, my suggestion is to take a cold shower. I would like for all of our code to be RPG IV (/free), but the business need just isn't there most of the time; I've re-written a few old programs when the business need was there.

By the way, when the DSPF36's are compiled, a DDS version is created and put into the QS36DDSSRC source file. In fact, this is what is actually used to create the display file, not the DSPF36 member.

The biggest problem with the 36 environment stuff from a practical standpoint is that people still use the BLDFILE command to create (flat) files. I've converted most of our files to externally described tables (either DDS or, lately, SQL). I have been lucky in that the application, which existed when I got here, did not create multi-format records; there are separate tables for order headers, ship to's, and lines, etc. As for program maintenance, sometimes I'll modify the existing RPG II and other times I'll write and RPG IV program and put a CALL to it in the original program; depends upon the situation.

This situation isn't all that unusual, Mike. There are probably tons of RPG II still in production, as well as pre-ANSI-64 Cobol. There may even be some malingering 1401 emulator stuff out there .-)

Jerry C. Adams
IBM System i Programmer/Analyst
B&W Wholesale
office: 615-995-7024
email: jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 10:10 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Subject: Re: Panic is setting in... I am seeing RPG36 and OCL36... and I need tomodernize it!

Not that I shy away from from such a challenge, but anything to save time.
One printout from PDM is 4 pages long of DSPF36 and RPG36 programs (with
some other RPG scattered within).