Re: RPG

Please keep in mind that some people can't code in free format RPG. A
former employer - global org - comes to mind.
This is the employer who let me study via Stanley Meyer's book and then I
moved quickly to the RPG Reference.

Their reason is sadly one I have heard when I recently interviewed someone
about VR development.
Most organizations code based on the "lowest denominator" or on the lowest
level that everyone can understand.
In my case this usually meant fixed format and very little beyond RPG III
because programmers in one area were just getting trained on that.
So while I did many of the webinars and learned a lot from it, it drained
slowly from not using it.
(Odd thing is I'm in a place that I can use it and now I'm trying to catch
back up on all of it ASAP.)

Dan

On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 3:14 PM, Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

(1) the choice of
learning fixed vs. free does make a big difference,

That’s the one I meant. And you are correct - Rochester Connection was a
completely different group. I meant Rochester Initiative.


Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com

On Jul 19, 2016, at 3:57 PM, John Yeung <gallium.arsenide@xxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 3:13 PM, Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

Having taught RPG to a _lot_ of non-RPGers John I’ll just say that in

my opinion you are wrong.

About which part(s)? It's not clear to me from the rest of your
response whether you are trying to emphasize that (1) the choice of
learning fixed vs. free does make a big difference, or (2) Brad's
tutorials are out of date.

I agree with you that there have been array and data structure
enhancements in RPG that are well worth learning. I have no idea
whether they are covered in Brad's tutorials or the older books you
mentioned. I do like your treatment of them (and other features) here:

http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh082202-story03.html

I suppose those may already be considered "out of date" too, but given
the amount of RPG III and RPG/400 code out there (and even earlier
stuff), these still feel pretty fresh to me. (Maybe I should mention
that I think a lot of folks are in that situation Buck described of
having to deal with a preponderance of legacy code, as well as
potentially writing new RPG code. So learning the old stuff, even if
you aren't going to write new programs with it, can still be
important. That's the sense and spirit in which I believe Brad used
the term "timeless".)

There have also been changes in subprocedures - in particular the

removal of the requirement to always have prototypes, something that really
bugs and confuses newbies because it made no sense for local subprocs.

That was definitely a peeve of mine, and a very welcome change.

Brad does good work and treats his customers well - I just wish that

Rochester Connection would do more to update the materials they sell.

I found this confusing until I dug around and found Brad's courses
being offered by the Rochester *Initiative*.

John Y.
--
This is the RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) (RPG400-L)

mailing list

To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.

Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related

questions.

--
This is the RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) (RPG400-L)
mailing list
To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.

Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related
questions.