Re: Long time RPGer needs help getting started in new methods

There are a lot of tutorials to get you started.  Here are a couple 
examples:

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/education/enablement/wbt/sw738.html

http://www.modernrpgiv.com/ModernProgramming/WDSCiTutorials/tabid/66/Default.aspx

And then here is a listing of many other systemI sites
http://search400.techtarget.com/featuredTopic/0,290042,sid3_gci837742,00.html

Personally, I would reccommend loading WDSc onto your laptop and start 
"playing" with it.  You also might want to learn RPG-FREE.  It's not an 
OO, (object oriented), language but it has many of the same 
characteristics and syntax, and it's very easy to learn since it's 
basically just prettier RPG.

As far as I've seen there's no ABC123 way to get started, but just setting 
up WDSc and learning RSE will keep you quite busy for a while.  And once 
you are well on your way this group will be able to answer any of your 
questions.  =)




I have been searching many of these posts looking for a basic 1,2,3 on 
getting started in something other than traditional "AS/400" ways of doing 
things. Notice I did not say iSeries or "System i" since all the systems I 
have ever worked on are truly only AS/400 in nature. I have used SEU from 
S/34 to S/36 to S/38 to AS/400. Once I went to Common and saw Paul Conte's 
demo on FlexEdit and convinced our shop to go that route. That meant 
buying 5 Intel 486 based PC's @$2500 each, 5 Twinax boards @ $500 each, 5 
FlexEdit licences at @500 each, and then we ended up not using it since it 
did not save the source change dates in the members.

Since I left that job in 1998 I have worked in shops that are primitive. 
Here are some examples of what I mean:
  a.. Running ancient packages written in RPG Auto-report or S/36 
environment or (currently) a package ported from the S/38 that still uses 
F1 for exit.
  b.. No money in the budget for any type of training or Common 
conferences
  c.. No desire for any change from the old, stable green screen programs
Now I am on an 810 running V5R4. I went to a presentation this summer by 
Gary Konicek of IBM Rochester at our local ASU user group in Columbus, 
Ohio. He gave out a .pdf file on the software side of V5R4 announcements 
(a technical overview). I now have time to try some of these things and I 
want to know where to start.

Here is what I have tried and where it stands:

1. I followed Jon Paris and Susan Gantner's "A Quick Start to Using RSE" 
to the point where I installed WDSC on my work PC (even though I don't 
meet the minimum specs - I am running on an old Compaq with Windows 2000 
Professional with only 256Mb of memory). It bogged down my system so much 
even having it installed I disabled it all. I would try it on my personal 
laptop which is fairly new and has 1 Gb of memory if I thought it wouldn't 
bog it down also.

2. I am trying to figure out how to install iSeries Access for Web. That 
led me to this newsgroup where I have followed a few threads but have not 
seen the ABC method I need yet.

Thanks everyone in advance,

Blair Hamren