Re: Is RPG dying

On Feb 16, 2012, at 12:38 PM, rpg400-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

If RPG is dying, then /free (which makes RPG look like something
entirely different, and consumed resources that *could* have been used
to make a full implementation of PL/I available on the 400),

Maybe you were trying to make a point, but this is just silly.

One of the reasons they were able to implement RPG /free is that the cost was relatively low. This was Due to the fact that the compiler had been incrementally improved over the years with the potential for this to happen in mind. Also the core parsing requirements were already in place for handling evals.

To build a new PL/I on the other hand would have been horrifically expensive. It would have actually been way more expensive than RPG was because there is no underlying compiler code (to my knowledge) that could have been used as a base. with RPG IV there was already a C base (the SAA code) and it still cost multiple millions of $. Besides - with the exception of a very small number of people (you, me and Don Rima probably constitute the majority) nobody ever really wanted PL/I to be enhanced. It never took hold outside of a relatively small group of developers even in its heyday - it has a zero chance right now. If it wasn't for Synon and a couple of other products it would have died completely on IBM i years ago.

Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com