RPG people who have worked with SQL within and outside RPG seem to believe that SQL handles set manipulation over a file (a SELECT statement of all the data in the file that fits the specified criteria) better than native RPG file access, but RPG grabs individual records more efficiently than SQL. From my experience, I would tend to agree.

I think Java and C++ came from the same roots. The creators of Java tried to make C++ better. C++ is object orientation grafted onto C, and it shows. You might remember my comment in my first post about the 1000-page “Introductory” C++ textbooks. I read about an IT director who said it took over 2 years to train a C++ programmer to write production programs- about as long as it took to train astronauts.

That Java looks suspiciously like C++.

Is there an advantage of using SQL to manipulate a database over RPG? If not in power, perhaps in cost, ease of use?

I think having the user base is huge. Everything else follows. C++ probably gets its support in a large way from the fact that it is a video game language.
Video gaming is a bigger industry than the film industry…and not as sexy. But lots of progammers got interested in progamming trying to break into gaming. That’s the soul reason I’d would have ever picked up a programming guide as a kid. That and the thought of having a computer do my homework.
Later in life, programmers realize they have to make a living. C++ isn’t that bad, it’s just tedious especially when it comes to the output. On the other hand, there is lots of code in C++ already written and readily vailable to do just about anything you need it to do.

I can see why IBM would push Java but it seems a pretty big mistake to not put more effort into migrating your previous product in a fashion that would keep not just your user base but the programmers and proponents of your
sytem interested.

I know from experience that employees in the end will most likely be the ones who make the final recommendation on whether a technical product is worth a swith or worth the money. If you don’t connect with them, you’re lost.

Programming for businesses and scientific applications is not the most entertaining form of programming, but one could make an argument that it is the most useful. My own opinion (rather unpopular, I’ll admit) is
that writing video games is a perversion of programming. And most kids these days are not oriented toward that which is useful, but rather that which is amusing or fun.

RPG can be used in conjunction with HTML. However, RPG is designed to communicate with a video screen through DDS (Data Description Specifications), which format the screen, defining constant fields such as text along with input and output(display) fields. HTML is a keyword
that can be used in DDS; but you must very carefully define the data and HTML tags in the DDS specifications. It is a tedious process. With the normal “green screen”, you use a utility called SDA (Screen Design Aid)
to make screen design easier. There is no utility to create HTML in a similar fashion. That is a handicap.

Some RPGers want IBM to put into RPG the facility to handle HTML as naturally as it does DDS, which creates an RPG “WORKSTN” file. IBM has been pushing Java hard, and apparently they do not see the need to give RPG that capability. Several years ago, IBM created a measure of
ill-will by putting ads in the trade papers that implied that if you didn’t drop RPG and learn Java, you would end up flipping hamburgers at McDonalds. More recently, they have been enhancing RPG more, but they still do not provide the “native” ability to handle HTML.Outsiders have attempted to provide packages to enable Web development, but they are usually kludgy addons.

You can now write RPG calculations in a freeform manner, which makes some people happier than using fixed spots in a program line to put operation codes and calculation factors. Maybe that will be less of a turnoff to our budding Basic and Java programmers.

The value of RPG is that it manages and manipulate data in a firm, straightfoward, terse way. It will never be used to write an operating system or a video game, but it manipulates file data, including data going to and from “screen” files, very elegantly.

I thought I’d illustrate the differences between languages by showing how Java and RPG/400 (the dialect between RPGIII and RPGIV) program the display of the verses to “99 Bottles of Beer”: (from http://99-bottles-of-beer.net/ )

// java version of 99 bottles of beer on the wall
// 1995 Sean Russell (ser)

class bottles
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
String s = “s”;
for (int beers=99; beers>-1;)
{
System.out.print(beers + ” bottle” + s + ” of beer on the wall, “);
System.out.println(beers + ” bottle” + s + ” of beer, “);
if (beers==0)
{
System.out.print(“Go to the store, buy some more, “);
System.out.println(“99 bottles of beer on the wall.\n”);
System.exit(0);
}
else
System.out.print(“Take one down, pass it around, “);
s = (–beers == 1)?”":”s”;
System.out.println(beers + ” bottle” + s + ” of beer on the wall.\n”);
}
}
}

H*
H* RPG/400 VERSION OF THE BOTTLES PROGRAM *
H*
FSCREEN O F 80 WORKSTN
C MOVE 100 X 30
C** COUNT DOWN FROM 100 TO 0
C** ONE BUG IS THAT IT DOESN’T SAY “BOTTLE” WHEN THERE’S ONLY 1
(CURT BARRON)
C X DOWGE0
C EXCPT
C SUB 1 X
C END
C SETON LR
OSCREEN E
O X 3
O 26 ‘BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE’
O 31 ‘WALL,’
O X 36
O 53 ‘BOTTLES OF BEER’
O E
O 22 ‘TAKE ONE DOWN AND PASS’
O 32 ‘IT AROUND’

Once you understand that DOWGE stands for “Do while greater than or
equal to” , the programming should be clear.

Recent advances in the language have given it some pretty nice changes … free form code (as apposed to column based) and a very powerful Eclipse based editor (WDSC — Websphere Development Studio Client for iSeries, or RDi — Rational Developer for System i), just to name a few.

There’s a quite active System i community … part of which I run. The RPG400-L mailing list is very active.

Kids these days will never embrace RPG unless something changes? What would RPG V look like? Could the output be changed into a format that would play well on the web? Besides stablity, what are the advantages for using RPG when compared to the other more popular options?