Re: RPG III (RPG/400)

-----Original Message-----
From: WDSCI-L [mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dan
Sent: Monday, November 02, 2015 1:56 PM
To: Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio Client
for System i & iSeries <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] RPG III (RPG/400)

It's interesting that I found this thread. Several weeks ago I was
searching on CVTRPGSRC to see what impact / issues one could expect to
see by converting RPG-III to RPG-IV.

We're using an old ERP package written in RPG-III. I have always been
of the mindset to convert any RPG-III source to RPG-IV before I modify it.
Especially now with RDi, where the outline view doesn't work with
RPG-III and hoop-jumping necessary to debug OPM programs.
Unfortunately, I'm new here and I'm getting pushback when I need to modify an RPG-III program.
The "standard" here is to convert only when it's a major rewrite or
something that needs to be done can't be done in RPG-III. The
argument is that any such application must be completely retested, so,
while the effort to convert is minimal, the big cost is in the effort to QA the app.

It's been at least 15 years since I did any significant conversions to
RPG-IV, but I never recall anything that "broke" as a result of simply
converting an app. NOTE that this means no attempts to convert stuff like:
MMDDYY MULT 10000.01 YYMMDD