Re: Future of RPG

Granted there is a lot to learn, but happy users don't generate as many service calls.

One thing that can help is to pick a framework. You mentioned PHP. Try Zend Framework or Symfony. Zend Framework can connect directly to DB2 on the i. For Symfony you will need to use MySQL with the DB2 storage engine. Zend Framework is far more complex, and far more flexible. Symfony will have a shorter learning curve.

Pick an IDE. RDp provides for RPG development, and since it is built on eclipse, you should be able to add the PDT plug-ins for PHP development. SEU is really insufficient, and as I found, once I got used to using WDSCi, I couldn't go back to SEU.

All of this will take some time to learn, but once you do you will be more productive for it.

Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: -----

To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: THarteau@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent by: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: 07/28/2010 02:31PM
Subject: Future of RPG

Hi,
I would love to learn and do new things! We have an ERP package
that is written in RPG400, some old home grown programs in RPG III and
anything new is in RPG 4 with a little bit of ILE. New requests are
wanted tomorrow and maintenance to existing programs need to be fixed
yesterday. We have 2 programmers, counting myself. Not a lot of time for
figuring out new stuff when the old stuff is faster.
Take this as an example, we just finished a maintenance program
using green screen. The user really wanted a PC like screen with drop
down boxes and radio buttons. Almost every entered field was validated
against a DB2 file before updating several different master files.
It was done in green screen because we are missing the information
on how to make a GUI front end work with RPG. How can you do this
efficiently with RPG doing most of the work? I have taken a couple of
hour long sessions on PHP & EGL, but how does the data go between the
screen & the program? I understand the syntax, but the implementation is
what I have a problem with, and don't have the time to figure out. How
can passing all the fields (20+) through the IFS or something else be as
fast as a green screen with subfiles? I haven't looked extensively, but I
have not seen step by step instructions on how to make a GUI screen work
with RPG. I have seen how to write the screen, how to write the program,
but how is the information passed back and forth? This may not make a lot
of sense, but this would have been a perfect project to use new
techniques, but I did not see a fast way to get it up and running.

<===================================================>

Terri Harteau
Felker Brothers Corporation
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"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path
and leave a trail."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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