Reader Feedback On Modern, Free-Form RPG New Bloods
October 28, 2013 Hey, Alex
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Well, maybe! As an IBM SE for many years, I found that business types could relate well to RPG as it was what it was, and they were not looking for bells and whistles. They were looking for solutions to problems for their companies. The new programmer learns on Windows and in most cases may know an awful lot but have little respect for the business of business. I loved helping these business types who were anointed to become programmers. I helped them know how to solve business problems with a business programming language. It was not so bad back then since IBM was the only company that offered real ease of use for programming. I would hate the job of telling those folks that enjoy advanced data structures and processes how to understand business. RPG today is known as a primitive language because it was built to help people who did not want computer complexity to interfere with getting the business job done. Why is that such a bad idea? Funny how IBM wants to make RPG like Java and like C and like C++ when there already are languages that are not only like that, they are that–languages such as C, C++, and C#, and Java exist already and they can be called from “primitive” business languages such as RPG and COBOL. IBM invented RPG, not C or Java, and IBM built a big business on it. Why does IBM think that the stuff it builds like RPG and the IBM i operating system are not what anybody wants anymore? Yet, such things as those run so many companies so well and so cleanly that it is a real shame that IBM wants to fundamentally change it because they think that Windows languages have become good enough! Why not use development dollars to make RPG more like regular people would like instead of all the computer hacks that won’t like IBM know matter what it does? Why not let the machine do most of the work rather than have programmers work so hard to display a word on a screen panel or a Web page? Let those who like C, C++, C#, Java, Perl, PHP, and other languages use them while IBM programmers run rings around their results? Does IBM have no faith in IBM? –Brian Kelly “One who once knew or thought he knew!” RELATED STORIES Will Modern, Free-Form RPG Bring New Blood To The Platform? a target=”new” href=”https://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh101413-story02.html”>Oh, Ruby! What You Do To Me (On Rails) Big Data Gets Easier to Handle With IBM i TR7 RPG, Database Top Enhancements In IBM i 7.1 Technology Release 7 If COBOL Is Too ‘Un-Cool’ For School, What’s That Make RPG?
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