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On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 11:43 AM, Buck Calabro <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 10/30/2013 10:54 AM, John Yeung wrote:
If you are a little more adventurous, go with PHP or (iSeries)Python.
PHP has IBM support, but Python is arguably a better language. I
can't speak much to PHP as I don't use it, but the main thing I would
recommend is to not try so hard to take RPG so far out of its comfort
zone.

Good advice. One thing to remember though, is that many of us learnt
RPG by looking at and modifying existing RPG code. There isn't much of
an existing IBM i Python code base for Python beginners to learn from.

True. But there isn't much of an existing RPG codebase for the kind
of non-RPGish things being talked about here, either. Scott of course
has some advanced stuff; someone else (I can't remember off the top of
my head) has some RPG that does dynamically resizable arrays. You
aren't going to be able to look at my company's order entry program in
RPG (or frankly any of our RPG codebase) and just "figure out" how to
make dynamic arrays.

The thing with RPG is that it is so tightly coupled to the underlying
platform. Most of what's quirky or tricky to learn about it comes
from the IBM i (and its predecessors). The "universal" stuff in RPG
is dead-simple. Anyone that can program in any language whatsoever
can pick up those parts of RPG in practically no time flat.

In contrast, the things about Python that might seem weird to RPG
programmers are all fundamentally aspects of Python itself, rather
than platform-specific. And there are TONS of Python books (dead-tree
as well as electronic, including some freebies on-line), tutorials,
blogs, forums, mailing lists, etc. Python's official documentation is
quite good, and includes a wonderful tutorial (which is how I learned
Python myself). I daresay there is a lot more Python learning
material out there than RPG learning material.

So the path to using Python on the i is (1) learn Python on Windows,
Linux, or Mac, (2) install iSeriesPython on your i, (3) profit!

Also, Python can accommodate a fairly Java-esque style of programming.
This isn't considered the "best" path, but it is *a* path, and if you
already know Java, it might be quicker to pretend Python is a
declaration-free Java and then unlearn your Java habits, than to learn
idiomatic Python from the ground up. But even that isn't really hard,
honestly.

I wish I had more time in the day... I'd love to work on an IBM i Python
wiki.

The folks over at www.iseriespython.com would love that too! So far,
all that's there are a few (severely outdated) examples, the forum,
and a blog which currently consists of two rudimentary posts by me.
We've thrown around the idea of a wiki, but not surprisingly, all of
us are busy too.

John

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