Re: Impossible to even think about rewriting in RPG

John,
I have been programming in RPG since 1973, and have followed all of the advances
in the language with great interest.
I use a combination of all of the methods available depending on the
requirements of the project.
For development, I use the IBM Rational Developer for Power Systems (RDp).
The IDE that that provides makes me much more productive that PDM/SEU.

I use RPG Free form almost all of the time, and find that again I am more
productive that when I used Fixed form.

I have worked as both a Staff Programmer and Consultant, and am always looking
to improve my skills.
I have found that for most business needs, there is very little the RPGLE can
not do.

Thanks,
 
Jeff Young
Sr. Programmer Analyst






________________________________
From: John Yeung <gallium.arsenide@xxxxxxxxx>
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, June 27, 2011 10:30:07 AM
Subject: Re: Impossible to even think about rewriting in RPG

On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 7:45 AM,  <Tommy.Holden@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Until like 3 months ago I used SEU/PDM for doing ILE programming complete
with service programs, modules & APIs.  Blaming the IDE is a red herring.
It's a desire to make the effort that is to blame.

Thanks,
Tommy Holden

I'm not *blaming* the IDE.  I'm saying that for me, in my workplace,
in my opinion, it's not the best use of my time.  Of course you can do
ILE programming with SEU and PDM.  And if you do, great.  I am all for
it.  But it *does* have a cost, and is not only related to
willingness.

Look at Java for a much more stark illustration of the cost of an
inferior development environment.  How many Java programmers who use
Notepad or EDTF or some such are anywhere near as productive as Java
programmers using Eclipse?  There is a very real cost to having to
type boatloads and boatloads of boilerplate yourself.  While you are
doing that, you're not really contributing value, you're not really
working on the business problem.  You are typing (or copying and
pasting) lots and lots and lots of stuff that either the compiler or
the IDE should be able to do for you.  It's a bloody waste of time.

For me, personally, I have not seen ILE code that is *so much better*
than OPM code that there is a compelling argument to switch.  At least
at my workplace, the benefit is very close to zero.  And the cost is
much greater than zero.  If there were some demonstration that there
would be significant benefit (modularity, maintainability,
performance, functionality), or some way to mitigate the cost (less
clunky development process), then of course it would be worth
revisiting.

And this is why I have asked very plainly:  What do folks use other
than SEU and PDM for their ILE development?  Three months ago, you
switched yourself, so clearly there must be something better.

Note:  I know ILE provides greater functionality.  The benefits that
are obvious to me are embedded SQL and recursion.  So of course when
those things make the programming much easier, it is worth the
overhead of the extra coding required for ILE.  But honestly, the
stuff we do at my workplace very rarely calls for these features.

John