RE: Is RPG dying

I was not referring to running a server farm and hosting anything my customers wanted to run. I was talking about hosting an ERP application (or a suite or apps) that I developed. I don't want to manage the hardware in that case. I want the hardware to just be there and be scalable and be reliable with as few sysadmins as I needed. I would put all my resources into programmers and end user support staff.

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of john e
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2012 8:49 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Subject: Re: Is RPG dying

AS/400 (IBM i) is a proprietary system, it is designed to be run without attendance, and is vertically scalable.

This is much different than what is needed in "the cloud". Yes you need scalability, endless scalability, i.e. horizontal and not vertical.

If you start a cloud business, would you REALLY go for "the i"....? I mean, all costs considered. Because you really don't want to pay for a system which is designed to run without operator / sys-admin. I mean, if you start a clouyd business then managing the technical infrastructure is your core competence. You can do that much cheaper using Linux boxes.

The business case for AS/400 is not to be used as a cloud platform (EBCDIC anybody?).

If managing the IT infrastructure is your core business you don't pay IBM lots of cash to do it for you (i.e. lease an AS/400). You CAN make a cluster of Linux boxes just as resilient (or even more) than an AS/400. But it takes expertise, and work, which you don't want in a normal business setting. There you want an AS/400. AS/400 is out-of-the-box scalability and stability. No expertise needed.


On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Mike Cunningham <mike.cunningham@xxxxxxx>wrote:

If I had nothing today and was just starting a business (a
non-software development business) I would not choose any particular
hardware or OS or language as I would most likely just go 100% cloud
and let someone else worry about all that. If I was starting a
business that was going to provide cloud services I would definitely
go with the i platform because it will scale so nicely but would probably choose java or EGL as the language.
My customers won't care as they only care about the end result and I
want my developers to be as productive as possible.

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of john e
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2012 7:31 AM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Subject: Re: Is RPG dying

Joe said:

People get Perl jobs too. :) But to use the trite observation, if
you were building an application today would you use PHP as your
first choice? I wouldn't.

But the question was: would you choose the AS/400 (IBM i, pff) and RPG
(or just AS/400) as your (server) development platform, if you had a
choice, i.e. all things considered equal and no AS/400 already running mega package.



On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 1:11 PM, Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

wrote:

On 3/9/2012 1:53 AM, John Yeung wrote:

On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 10:15 PM, Joe
Pluta<joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

I'll be happy to make a prediction. PHP is on a steady decline,
has been for the last several years.

You cite TIOBE, which shows PHP's trajectory as basically flat
from sometime in 2004 through 2010, with a more noticeable decline
only in the last couple of years. (Contrast with Java, which has
been declining for at least a decade, even after adjusting for the
"Google revision" in 2004.)

Yes, the decline since, say, 2010 has been dramatic. Almost as bad
as Visual Basic.

You want to be current, learn C# or Objective-C.

I think what these languages' TIOBE ratings show is that the .NET
and iPhone platforms are enjoying a lot of success right now.

I agree. I wrote about that nearly a year ago:


http://www.mcpressonline.com/programming/rpg/practical-rpg-the-futur
e-
of-rpg.html

You want to be last year's news, learn PHP or better yet Python.
Scripting languages are sooooo 2006. :)

True. Though it sounds like Hans got his PHP job more recently
than that. At least we don't have to worry about RPG ever having
been or ever becoming a fad. :)

People get Perl jobs too. :) But to use the trite observation, if
you were building an application today would you use PHP as your
first choice? I wouldn't.

Joe
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