RE: Getting Young People into IBM i

I too hate the term "coders". And, I would rephrase it slightly to say "How do we make *developers* instead of coders?".

As to Birgitta's comment about people stuck in RPGIII and PDM, I can totally relate. So many people with 1 year of experience repeated over and over for 20-30 years. So frustrating to see a total disinterest in keeping skills current. I tried so hard to push some former coworkers into free form and RDi. Sent them articles, links, tried "Lunch & Learns" - still nothing. No interest in trade journals, forums.... nothing. I likened it to stealing from their employer. Getting paid current wages for 30-year-old skills/techniques is just wrong.

We used to do a programming test as part of an interview - they were made aware of it before coming in for the interview. We supplied a simple customer master PF and asked them to do a simple (1 or 2 screen) inquiry/maintenance program. Had one 20-year person take 6 hours before they walked out and they had basically nothing coded. Eventually, we limited it to 2 hours - it was easily doable in that time. They didn't have to finish (that was made clear) but we wanted to see their approach and style. Very, very sad. Offered the option of PDM or RDi. Never had a single person want to use RDi.

Roger Harman
COMMON Certified Application Developer - ILE RPG on IBM i on Power




-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Brad Stone
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2023 4:18 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Getting Young People into IBM i

LOL!

Well, judging from people I work with a lot of them don't even know how a
job log or library list works... much less RPG. I had one today even ask
me "what's FTP"? So maybe it's the wrong question being asked.

Maybe it should be: "How do we make programmers instead of coders?"

Programmers adapt with language syntax and environment and know logic.

Coders.. well, code and are usually dependent on the platform, framework or
language at hand.. (I personally hate the term "coder").

Programmers take logic courses, don't care what language they use, etc. If
I had to list all the languages I used in college and work we'd be here a
while.


On Wed, May 10, 2023 at 2:16 PM Jack Woehr via MIDRANGE-L <
midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

yes yes yes

And where would we be without Brad Stone?!

On Wed, May 10, 2023 at 1:14 PM Brad Stone <bvstone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

And that's the answer.
* I wouldn't work with the system had I not gotten my first internship

and

used RPG. * I actually preferred COBOL back in
college.. haha!

On Wed, May 10, 2023 at 1:39 PM Jack Woehr via MIDRANGE-L <
midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Heard at NEUG:

Questioner: “How do we bring young people into the platform?”
Scott Klement: "Hire them."
❤
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