RE: why rpg and not cobol

OK so there were dozens of responses but no right answers :)

The reason why RPG is the preferred language on iseries (and not COBOL): follow the money!

IBM was bringing thousands of organizations into the IBM 360 computer age back in the 1960s & 1970s, only to see them move to the "B.U.N.C.H." three years later - where they could run COBOL for less $.

(Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, or Honeywell)



IBM had a choice way back when.

Guide clients to purchase IBM hardware and develop in COBOL ... and then the clients would be running a "commodity" platform where they could more easily jump ship in a few years;

OR

Guide clients to RPG - where the client was then CAPTIVE since no other machine had a serious RPG compiler.

It's the same marketing philosophy as Gillete razors, Apple OS, and Lionel model trains. Give away the shaver and the client cant go elsewhere - they HAVE to buy your razors/software/train-cars!


COBOL was governed by a standards organization and also the federal government had their FIPS standards - so IBMs hands were tied regarding COBOL. With RPG, IBM owned it all and they could do whatever they wanted to keep RPG from becoming a commodity.

Simple as that.



RPG has HUGE advantages over COBOL on iseries. Mostly not due to the language itself, but the fact that so many users have created so many widgets that users share knowledge, experience, books, and even code.


But RPG on iseries does offer the following huge language benefits over COBOL:

Functions: with RPG one can create their own functions. COBOL doesn't offer this, which is 100 nails in its coffin.

READE: in RPG this is one line of code; in COBOL it can be dozens of lines of messy code (load the keys, read the file until keys not =, then check the last record read for matching keys)


Note to people debating RPG vs COBOL: if you are in your 50's or 60's that's OK - retirement is soon. If younger, RUN to learn another language. I think it will be amazing how quickly they will both be a footnote in history!



-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dave
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 12:47 PM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Subject: why rpg and not cobol

Hi,

I would like to know why RPG is the principal language on the i. Has it
always been so since the days of the AS400 and beyond? Is it just an IBM
thing?
Thanks