Hello,
I've read the discussion about RPG-OA (and also the comments on RPG programmers in general) with much interest.
Though I agree with much of which was written about RPG programmers, i doubt that one can generalize that most of them are frightened for new kind of work.
I do not know in which kind of company you writers are working. I work in an office of an ISV and we are making RPG programs since the days of S/36.
We truly believe, that the iseries is one of the best database servers on the market, if not the best (I've done a lot of work on MVS OS390 as well, by the way).
In most aspects the RPG programms run faster than every other application we've programmed in between (java and PHP just to name two).
With java we saw such an overhead of resource consumption, that we left this after a few months.
PHP is nice because of the ability of client independency and openness, so we are working on it in the future, too.
So what is it all about? Our customers ask for GUI application, that is why we are interested in RPG OA.
We think this enables us to guify our ERP solution in a shorter time, than it would be, if we use other Programming languages and techniques.
We are very open minded for new programming languages and their IDE, but how can one think, that even if you are hard trained for a few months on the new things,
that this could be done more easy and faster than with RPG techniques? We are in competition with windows based servers and their applications.
Most of our customers do not even have an IT department and people who know, what they are working with.
How can we push our server of choice when even the argument, that the iseries is superior in aspects of security and one oft he most reliable systems on the market,
will not convince the customers. They only see the applications interface which was green screen in the past.
And they think this is old fashioned. So what can we do?
We have to hear, what our customers want, even if we think that this is just more colours and Mousing around.
If we want to keep in business we MUST give them what they want or they'll get worse from others.
So we are neither lazy nor are we ignorants - we just try and do our best.
Greetings from the Old RPG Fart.
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Im Auftrag von Birgitta Hauser
Gesendet: Dienstag, 27. Juli 2010 07:47
An: 'RPG programming on the IBM i / System i'
Betreff: AW: Open Access for RPG
Hi Scott,
So after 7 years of giving up my free time, vacation time, etc to teach
(while still working full-time as a programmer, not a teacher) I'm extremely
burned out and just tired... sooooo tired...
Just try to take a timeout (far away from any computer, phone etc.), but it
is really necessary. Recently I visited a friend of me who is the manager of
a sanatorium. He took me into a session he hold about "Stress Management",
some of the participants suffered the burned out syndrome ... and believe me
they were really sick.
you've done and still do a great job in teaching, writing articles and tools
for everyone to try it out. (... and please do not stop!)
Even here on the other side of the pond, you and your tools are well known
and a lot of people use them (even though its written in English ;) and some
translations must be done to make them understandable for everybody ... but
someone is always found to do it)
I think those who read those articles, go to Common or User Groups events,
participate in the forums are not those who resist in learning something new
... it's the rest.
... and I know it's sometimes like fighting against wind mills.
In my former company the external programmer did not do any progress since
he learned RPG in the 80th.
Not even subfiles where used, why should I do so?
Why do I need an EVAL as long as I can execute a MOVE?
Sometime ago I had to teach ILE concepts in a company. There were 5 young
programmers and 5 old ones. The young guys were interested, understood the
ILE concepts, saw the advantages of procedures over programs etc. The old
ones, said we already know RPG we use it since 30 years and the way we use
it is the right one. Instead of writing a service program with several
(exported) procedures, they wrote a single program (not even with
subroutines) and called it whenever they need it.
... what will happen? I think the young programmers will stay for may be a
year or two (to get some experience) and after have a look for another job
(may be in RPG but I suspect they will prefer something more "modern").
Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards
Birgitta Hauser
"Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." (Les
Brown)
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." (Derek Bok)
"What is worse than training your staff and losing them? Not training them
and keeping them!"
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Im
Auftrag von Scott Klement
Gesendet: Monday, 26. July 2010 19:29
An: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Betreff: Re: Open Access for RPG
Hi Dennis,
Yes. When one has tried, over and over, to persuade others in the merits
of
his own ways, the fault is obviously with the others. It could not
possibly
be related to presentation or ability to teach/lead. There was an
instructor with that attitude at a university I attended. He wasn't there
long, though. Keep telling yourself this, John.
(sigh)
In some cases, you're right, it's the instructors fault. But on the
other hand, you can't teach someone who won't listen or even try to learn.
I've done my best, for years, trying _very_ hard to make a change to
this community. To get people to wake up to new possibilities, to
improve their skills, so that RPG and IBM i aren't left forever with
that "legacy" stigma. I think I've made a difference, but still by and
large, the RPG community is decades out of date.
But as you say, perhaps it's my ability to present. Or my ability to
teach/lead. I'm not a teacher (by trade) so perhaps I was a fool to try.
And since there's no money in teaching, I still have to work my "real"
job. So after 7 years of giving up my free time, vacation time, etc to
teach (while still working full-time as a programmer, not a teacher) I'm
extremely burned out and just tired... sooooo tired...
I read somewhere that people are happiest when trying something new. The
happiest periods of people's lives is when they're successful in trying
new things. Yet, their natural inclination is to keep doing what
they're already doing, and not to change at all.
Isn't that ironic?
midrange.com
