Re: Is RPG dying

Actually, this argues more to my point than to yours. Because Java is a typed language, in order for collections to be generally useful they had to be based on the most generic of variables, type Object. But that didn't let you off the hook; as a programmer you still had to cast the results of the collection to the appropriate type. However, this one act was found to be the root of so many runtime errors (ClassCastException) that the Java folks created the generic: a specific syntactical device in which a type is explicitly tied to what would otherwise be a typeless construct.

Using a dynamically typed language is more like coding all the variables in your Java program as type Object and just dumping whatever you want into them, hoping nobody changes it.

Joe

And back to collections, Java lets you create a dynamically typed list that contains any type. I understand that Java has generics, but if you are going to make an argument based on what a language "lets" you do, Java has the same problem. It is up to the developer to code in a best practices sort of way.

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: Joe Pluta
Sent by:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: 03/16/2012 04:51PM
Subject: Re: Is RPG dying

Re-read what I wrote. I said you can write bad code in any language. I
said that dynamically typed languages make it easier to write bad code. And that's because IMO dynamic typing allows people to write code with
less (or no!) up-front design and then "refactor" it, because you don't
have to worry about types.

Joe

... the result is you end up with unmaintainable systems.

Only if you hire unskilled or sloppy programmers. You can write bad code in any language. You can write unmaintainable code in any language. Even Java. Ever saw the code behind Java MoveX? It looks like a bunch of RPG programmers wrote it. Not a hit against you Joe, but what I mean is that they converted it from RPG 3, and kept the style intact as a matter of choice. Pretty scary actually.

Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx