Re: RPGILE programmers and the future of iSeries

[Jim Oberholtzer <midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was just at a two day user group meeting where over 20 students 
attended.  All of them eager to learn and use IBM i.  Granted the the 
president of the user group WMCPA is also an instructor at the program 
most of them came from (Gateway in Wisconsin), but there were students 
from upper middle Wisconsin, and as far away as Muskegon MI.

I also know of several other active and strong academic programs being 
taught on IBM i.  My own view is overall interest in the IT profession 
is still waning but on the way to waxing strong since Wall Street has 
lost its luster.  That accounts for the lower enrollments in most schools.

Bottom line, you can find new IBM i developers if you look, but a green 
screen development platform, with no advanced techniques is not going to 
draw candidates.

Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects


On 3/28/2012 1:46 PM, Jerry Draper wrote:
> How can executive management justify keeping iSeries systems when the
> pool of RPG programmers are of retirement age or so?
>
> Is that a myth promulgated by *IX PHP folk?
>
> At one place I am hearing that one justification for moving off of an
> iSeries is that no "younger" programmers are interested in learning RPG
> or it derivitives (ie:  RPGILE).
>
> Anyone else encountered this argument?
>
> My view is that RPGILE is just another coding system with a learnable
> syntax and that much of the user experience is via front ends written in
> java or .net.
>
> The iSeries is a great db engine serving up data to whoever wants it (or
> is authorized to it).  Tried, true, and trustworthy.
>
> If we are all going to retire at the same moment will the iSeries go poof?
>
> Jerry
>
>
>
> -- Jerome Draper, Trilobyte Software Systems, since 1976 iSeries, 
> Network, and Connectivity Specialists -- iSeries, LAN/WAN/VPN 
> Representing WinTronix, Synapse, Netopia, HiT, and others ..... (415) 
> 457-3431; www.trilosoft.com
> --