Folks,
Will EGL replace RPG? The answer is no. I see EGL used together with RPG
for modern Web 2.0 based UI's and implementing Web Services. Someone stated
that I said "RPG is DEAD". I do not recall ever making that statement. On
the contrary I have led IBM's initiatives which you will see in our January
announcement to insure that RPG has a rich future in terms of providing core
business language support.
The idea of integrating web tooling into the RPG language will not happen.
So the "Multi-UI" that some folks may have heard of will not materialize.
EGL is the "Multi-UI" for i5/OS based applications.
Over the past two years that I have worked for IBM and talked to customers I
have found some rather interesting facts and got a ton of input from
customers:
The majority of customers are still using RPG III and have not adopted ILE
or RPG IV.
There is still a huge segment of our customer base using RPG II.
Many shops that claim to use ILE and RPG IV have just run the migration
utility and are still writing RPG III style code in an RPG IV environment.
Many of our major customers have ongoing initiatives to move away from RPG
and that is a fact. They are using third party service providers to do
this.
The reality is that most of you have huge inventories of existing RPG code
that runs your businesses. There are few if any customer companies that
will spend the money to move to any new language. It is simply too
expensive with no return on the investment.
EGL is capable of full system development and can provide a complete
alternative to RPG that is a also a true statement. This may happen over a
10 to 15 year period and I would certainly encourage customers to look at
that option.
The reality is that I see RPG and COBOL continuing to exist for at least 10
years if not longer and IBM will continue to support both as long as there
is a demand from customers for us to support the languages. Aaron, Nathan,
your argument about the value of DDS and ease of development for 5250 UI is
certainly true, but... The majority of our customers need more than the
5250. They must have (not an option) robust Web applications and they must
be able to interoperate with customers and trading partners via web
services.
Someone on this list mentioned Java. Of course Java is a great solution to
anything on the web, but it comes at a very high cost. It is complex and
requires that you learn not just Java but many additional supporting
technologies and it seems that the learning curve is never ending with the
emergence of new technologies like AJAX, Silverlight, Dojo, etc. Just
staying current and up to date on emerging technologies is a major challenge
let alone solving business problems.
I see that most of our customers will use a combination of EGL and RPG or
should be, not one or the other.
Use the right tool for the right job.
I'm limited in what I can say at the moment as we are nearing a major
announcement for i5/OS based tools and compilers. Let me assure you that
IBM's Rational organization who is now responsible for the compilers and
development tools including ADTS is committed to insuring that our
customer's investment in existing technologies are protected for years to
come. No one can "gaurantee" the future of any product. That is
interestingly enough up to you our customers. IBM is a business. If you
continue to buy our products and pay for support, we will continue to
support the products. If you are no longer interested in a product (stop
buying it) then we will lose interest in it also. RPG provides a
significant source of revenue to IBM and we will most definitely continue to
support and enhance RPG. Notice I'm not talking about any specific
features. You will all be pleased with the enhancements you see at our up
coming announcements however. Many enhancements and our packaging changes
are in direct response to customer input.
On Dec 16, 2007 12:45 PM, Guillermo Andrades (CPI Software) <
andrades@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I've signed an "no comment" agreement, so I only can hope Bob and other
IBM
approved sources writes here the reply to the single question
"EGL will replace RPG?"
and even more
"after v6r1 will the RPG improve significantly?"
I would have other questions as
"do you thing EGL can made the very complex business apps type as these
made
in RPG & Cobol that have created the success of the System i plattform?"
btw see my signature and my anger face (;-(
Happy Christmas, Feliz Navidad.
Guillermo Andrades
http://RpgForWeb.com
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