RE: RPGIII compiler vs Visual Basic

[James Rich <james@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 16 Jun 2005, Joe Pluta wrote:

> Walden, you and I are disconnecting major here.  Maybe you don't
> understand how OS/400 works, being as you've been ensconced in the Dark
> Side for so long... if I were to take an old S/38 program and restore it
> on a brand spanking new iSeries and it caused a machine check, I could
> call IBM and expect a fix.

This just happened to us earlier this week.  We installed a new V5R3 
machine and much of the old S/38 programs did not work anymore. 
Specifically, any CL program that used RPLLIBL had to be changed. 
Furthermore, any programs that we had of type CLP38 had to be changed to 
CLP.  We did exactly what you are describing Joe and it didn't work without 
changes.

> Not only that, but for the most part, I could make changes to the
> source, compile it, and expect THAT to work.

We did do this and then things started working.  But I don't know how 
"making changes to the source" is the same as backwards compatible.

Anyway, the transition was not as smooth as we were hoping.  Still, the 
iSeries does a great job of backwards compatibility.  The biggest problems 
we had involved restoring QUSRSYS.  Unless you go in steps, IBM does not 
have a supported method for restoring it.

James Rich

It's not the software that's free; it's you.
        - billyskank on Groklaw