Re: iSociety

["Steve Richter" <stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Nov 14, 2007 4:06 PM, Lukas Beeler <lukas.beeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 11/14/07, Steve Richter <stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > both fully support the IBM execs and policies that are killing the i5.
> >  the system is over priced, under powered and starved for investment.
>
> Being able to realize and acknowledge the problems they have was never
> a strong point of the whole System i community.
>
> Anyone new to this stuff looking at Links like
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RPG#Example_code will rather stick
> with VB6.

I always err when I judge a language on syntax.   that example
actually shows a strength of RPG and as400. The program is a
standalone object that can be called from any other program or command
line on the system.  add an sql procedure wrapper around it and the
program can be called from anywhere on the network.  To do the same in
VB6 or .NET you have to place the code as a function in an assembly,
explicitly reference the assembly in the caller and then do the call.

If IBM invested in i5/OS this advantage could be extended. the RPG
program would support reflection which would allow the caller to
retrieve the list of parameters of the RPG program either at run time
or IDE time ( when you are writing the code that does the call ).

-Steve