Re: RPG vs. C -- MIDRANGE-L

Hello Don,

I also would not recommend C for application work on the AS/400.  However ILE C 
has been available since V2R3 
and I doubt many customers are running earlier versions of OS/400 -- doesn't 
help with the misguided souls 
sticking with SSP *8)

Previous release support is subject to the same rules as the other language 
compilers.

In addition to 'normal' C I/O ILE C has record level extensions (all begin with 
_R which let you do anything 
RPG can do and even some things it can't)

_Rcommit        COMIT   Commit
_Rdelete        DELET   Delete record
_Rfeod          FEOD    Force end of data
_Rfeov                  Force end of volume
_Rlocate        SETLL   Locate record
_Rreadd         CHAIN   Read by RRN
_Rreadf                 Read first record
_Rreadk         CHAIN   Read by key
_Rreadl                 Read last record
_Rreadn         READ    Read next record
_Rreadc         READC   Read changed subfile record
_Rreadp         READP   Read previous record
_Rreads                 Read same record
_Rrlslck        UNLCK   Unlock 
_Rrollbck       ROLBK   Rollback
_Rupdate        UPDAT   Update record
_Rwrite         WRITE   Write record
_Rwrited        WRITE   Write by RRN
_Rwriterd       EXFMT   Write and Read record
_Rwrread        EXFMT   Write and Read record

The biggest advantage to using RPG/COBOL is that if the source passes 
successfully through the compiler and you 
are a reasonable programmer then the program will do about 90% of what you 
intended.  With C there is no 
guarantee that a successful compile will even run (unless you rigourously play 
compiler while writing the 
code).  Practical experience has shown that any large project will take twice 
as long in C as in PL/1 or RPG or 
COBOL.

Keep C for the things it is good for:
        System level access; APIs; Statistical analyses; Maths functions;

Use RPG (and other HLLs) for business applications.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

//----------------------------------------------------------
// FlyByNight Software         AS/400 Technical Specialists
// Phone: +61 3 9419 0175      Mobile: +61 3 0411 091 400
// Fax:   +61 3 9419 0175      E-mail: shc@flybynight.com.au
// 
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//--- forwarded letter -------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Sun, 10 May 98 10:03:26 -0600
> From: "Don Kuenz" <kuenzdc@wind.cc.whecn.edu>
> To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Reply-To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject: RPG vs. C

> 
> C is my standard language for writing software on PC and Unix platforms.
> It would please me to use C as my standard language for writing software
> on an AS400 platform, but it looks like RPG is the defacto standard
> language because IBM includes RPG as a standard (free) compiler on all 
> platforms.
> 
> On the other hand, IBM's C implementations look very restrictive. Visual
> Age C++ only runs on recent machines. ILE C runs on more machines, but it
> too only runs on a subset of AS400 platforms.
> 
> Is it possible to create a program for a 9402-236 / V7R1 from an ILE C 
> compiler on a 9404-F10 / V3R1?
> 
> What does the group think about RPG vs C? Keep in mind that my customers
> use a wide variety of AS400 platforms.
> 
> -Don Kuenz


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