RE: RPGIII compiler vs Visual Basic

[Vernon Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I feel there is a slight misunderstanding of terms in this discussion. 
Maybe it comes from sometimes having blinders on for us dinosaurs that used 
to think RPG was all there is - a problem alluded to in these posts, also. 
(I'm not sure I am a complete dinosuar, as I've developed in VB for at 
least 10 years and actually taught VB3 at a local technical college until 
the state tried to deduct union dues, even though I was not in AFSCME or 
whatever the union was.)

What I refer to is the tendency to equate ILE and RPG IV. They are not the 
same thing - one is a language and the other is an environment in which 
multiple programming languages can participate. This is similar, as I 
understand it, to the Common Language Runtime that MS has - I know, not 
identical, but that has been hashed over several times - please see 
archives for more on that topic.

My point is, VB.NET is not CLR, it participates in or uses CLR. Similarly, 
RPG IV is not ILE, it participates in the Integrated Language Environment.

This is just my way of seeing things - it probably is missing something in 
terms of accuracy, but it helps me think things through.

So, yes ILE development is different, but not necessarily in the language 
itself. ILE development is a difference in structure - modular design, 
reusability, better performance. Nothing said there about opcodes. We were 
always able to create structured and reusable code, it was just harder to 
manage it. And the several dynamic calls needed to do this resulted in 
pretty poor performance. Just like, if you want to work hard, you can write 
code that supports OO principals, even in BASIC, but it's easier to do in a 
language that enforces those principals.

HTH
Vern

At 04:42 PM 6/15/2005, you wrote:

-snip-

> My point exactly. Converting a monolith app to RPG IV doesn't make it ILE. 
> It's still the same monolith code and if you rewrite in ILE (Real ILE), it 
> is not going to look anything like the monolith program.