Re: the RPG problem - adrift in the PC-web wind

 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.

It might help if readers knew more about where you're coming from in order to clarify your meaning. If I recall correctly you developed an RPG II ERP system with internally described screens and files and have managed to earn a living maintaining it for something like the past 30 years for small customer base. Now it appears that your product is increasingly being marginalized and apparently adrift while facing a PC-Web wind. Is that a reasonable conclusion on my part?

If so, then you should be given some credit for a legacy product that has withstood the waves of change during the past 30 years. But you should also give some credit to IBM and the RPG compiler team for the longevity of your product. You shouldn't complain that IBM has not provided a completely seamless modernization path for it, or complain about the cost of 3rd party alternatives. It appears to me that you've already gained remarkable value from your relatively small investment. And you should show more respect for how the IBM i platform and the RPG language have evolved over the past 30 years while you and your customer base chose to continue operating within the confines of the S/36 environment.

It would really surprise me if your customers didn't chose some cloud offering providing support for tablets and mobile phones, while retiring your RPG II code base sometime within the next 5 years. IBM i and RPG are well positioned to play a role in what is quickly becoming a post-PC, cloud services era. But legacy systems are not.

-Nathan