RE: Re: Re: XML, RPG, Web Services, Joe = Holy War was -> RE: Re: Modify the IE Browser

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bartell, Aaron L. (TC)

> Interesting choice of words, I am going to comment on the 
> passion portion. I know developers that could care less about 
> programming and whether or not they give anything back.

Give back to whom? The iSeries open source "community" is fundamentally
different from the PC community. If I download and use the Mozilla
browser, that is a direct personal benefit to my family and I. If I
participate in the development process, then a community of my direct
peers -- "the little guy"-- will benefit from my efforts. 

However, if I download and use your RPGMail tool, the true beneficiary
is not me or mine, but rather the company which I'm working for. By
doing so, I might be saving them a few hundred dollars by not having to
purchase a commercial alternative. And if I decide to contribute my
valuable time to the project, who will my efforts directly benefit? The
corporations of course, because my neighbor doesn't use RPG on an
iSeries to process his email.

> I 
> don't think you will find those individuals on this list, but 
> I am guessing there are a huge percent of RPG programmers 
> like that out there.  The only reason they continue to 
> program is because they don't want to go back to school to 
> learn something else, or programming in RPG pays the bills 
> decently, or both.

Aaron, I'm almost 36 years old. I've been employed in this field for
about 16 years now. During that time I've worked an average of 12 hours
per day on revenue generating projects. In addition to that, I've spent
countless hours trying to keep up with the pace of change in this
industry. 

I continue to do this work because I enjoy it, and I'm compensated well.
But that doesn't mean that I want to spend 18 hours a day in front of a
computer. I guess you could say that I'm no longer passionate about
programming. However, I don't have to be passionate about it to be
productive and competent. It's enough that I merely enjoy it enough to
continue learning and improving my skills.

> Not to label RPG programmers, but I think you are right in 
> saying that the general RPG population is older than the Java 
> population, and as the population gets older you see a lot of 
> individuals drop out of the "fun and exciting" realm of 
> programming.  It's just too bad.

As life moves forward, priorities and interests change. Let's see how
you feel in another 10 years, young fella'. :))


Regards,

John Taylor