Re: Future of RPG was: Open Access for RPG

There are really two issues at the heart of this:

1. Can we do anything to get the over 50 (40?) crowd to embrace the more modern development techniques that RPG (and IBM i) has made available?
2. Can we do anything to compel the under 30 crowd to give RPG (and IBM i) a try a see what a superior business language it is?

#1 - I think that is a losing battle. So many folks have checked out in the i/RPG world.

#2 - Great potential. Trevor pushing to get the YiPs going in Common and the "pick up and run" attitude of guys like Justen and Brian that are working closely with IBM (Steve Will) to establish the YoungiProfessionals.com site and push for more "young" folks to get involved in the "i" world, all of this has borne some fruit.

I'd love to hear if there are any community things that can be done to promote the issue raised by #2. Common gave birth to the YiPs and they are moving forward on their own with the support of IBM and Common. What else can be done?

Pete


On 7/27/2010 2:06 PM, Scott Klement wrote:

Hello,

Scott, you along with few others have made leaps-and-bounds of progress in
bringing so many of the rest of us - sometimes kicking and screaming...

Okay. Thanks, Dennis, Duane, Alan, Charles, Luis, Marc, Michael,
Birgitta, Mark, Buck, (did I miss anyone?) for all of your kind words.

So apparently, I don't do a bad job of presenting the material.

And surely you agree that there are many others who have done a good job
of teaching... Paris, Gantner, Cozzi, Bartell, Tuohy, Holt, Hoffman,
Meyers, Morris, Butterill, Farr, Pelkie, Denoncourt, Pavlak, Buck...
probably another 2 dozen or so names could be added here.

Yet, with all of those great teachers (some of whom have been teaching
this stuff for 15 years or longer) the vast majority of RPG coders are
still writing code in an 1980's fashion.

At what point do you give up?

THE FUTURE OF THIS PLATFORM DEPENDS ON IMPROVING CODE. IT'S NOT
HAPPENING. WHAT CAN WE POSSIBLY DO?

*THAT* is the point behind RPG-OA.

RPG programmers by and large can't/won't change. It doesn't matter WHAT
the reason is. The fact is, the change is not happening. *THAT* is the
reason for RPG-OA.

With RPG-OA, *we* (those that have progressed beyond the 1980s) can
provide handlers to do something modern. And *they* (the majority who
still thinks RPG II was the end-all-be-all of programming languages)
doesn't have to change or learn anything new.

*THAT* is the point behind RPG-OA.

*THAT* is why Jon keeps saying things like "Henrik, you're not the
target audience of RPG OA". Because Henrik has moved on to modern
times. He's not the problem. The problem is the stalwarts that won't
change. The same applies to virtually everyone on this mailing list.

With RPG OA, the stalwarts don't have to learn how to work with the IFS
APIs, no matter how ridiculously simply they are to use, the stalwarts
aren't going to use them. With RPG OA, we can make them use them
without asking them to take 5 minutes to learn something -- something
that we've proven will never happen.

With RPG OA we can give them spreadsheets, again without asking them to
learn anything.

Same with GUI interfaces.

*THAT* is the point. It's not that RPG OA is a great idea, or is a
modern approach. It's not. It's just that we've given up on RPG
programmers ever changing anything. So we're making it possible to move
beyond 1980's technology without them learning anything.