the RPG problem - adrift in the PC-web wind

Hi,

John E
> 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.

Steven S
Personally, I would strongly consider the AS/400, since it is a platform really designed to run a business, very solid, with longevity. If I was starting fresh, even with my RPG skills, I would probably prefer to work with a RAD/4GL development environment, so that you had the proper PC integration, where IBM has failed. (Of course, if I was buying a package, the difficulties involved in finding such a package would come to play.)

That would mean that tools like Lansa, Magic and WinDev would be given a prime consideration. RPG would be a fill-in. There may be a few other tools that accomplish this 4GL concept in another way, through PC mechanisms, or suites and studios designed for that purpose. Larry Ellison could have had Oracle trying to fit the bill, but he was too busy swallowing up companies.

Personally, starting fresh, I see no purpose in working with RPG and the jambalaya of EGL, or CGI and PHP, or Java and this and that. Or Open Access and the three vendors.

So in that sense, I think you could say that RPG missed the boat by the consistent IBM refusals to expand its savvy to PC and Web. And RPG will continue the drift to a secondary support and maintenance role, rather than new development. Cobolization will continue, despite the language enhancements. Those gentlemen who warned about this to IBM some years back were correct. IBM had an opportunity to keep the OS-language relationship vibrant, and did not do so.

The iSeries remains a fine platform for other reasons. It was built up on RPG code, and now stands a fine hardware platform, far more resilient and serviceable than most of the competition. However, it is too late to make much of the RPG relationship. The enhancements to RPG allow it to keep a lot of its huge installed base (with updates, modifications, etc) but will not be sufficient to create new markets, since no company can really justify working fresh with a tool hodge-podge rather than a clean slate of integrated tools.

Steven Spencer
Queens, NY