RPG: Not Dead Yet

Wow. One of the things you learn very quickly when writing a blog like this is that you never can tell what subjects will result in reader comments and which won't. Of course with a subject such as "RPG is Dead ..." we expected a few comments, but given that the original article was also open to comments the number of posts surprised us. Our post was even mentioned in the Angus blog.

One thing Mel's original post succeeded in doing is to get RPGers thinking--and talking--about why RPG is a great language and is indeed being used routinely to create new and modern business applications. Maybe that was his intent all along--to get the community to rally around the great language that is today's RPG. We could always give him the benefit of the doubt on that. ...

In terms of RPG being an "old fashioned" language, many situations in the IBM i world contribute to this perception. Not the least being the number of IBM i ISVs that continue to deliver software written in RPG III. And these are the big guys, the ones with multiple 0s at the end of their annual licence fees. We're not sure what they do with all those dollars. Maybe they need it because maintaining the old RPG/400 code is so much less productive than the newer, more modern syntax?

Several customers that we have talked to recently use heavily modified versions of one of the biggest ERP packages in the IBM i community. They had all stopped implementing maintenance releases as they had reached a point where applying the fixes to their heavily modified code was just not practical. They either did not need the enhancements or had already implemented similar features on their own. However, as part of their move to V6 it was necessary to update to the latest level. These are go-ahead shops who long, long ago moved all their own code to RPG IV. Imagine their disappointment when they discovered that this expensive "latest and greatest" release was still predominantly RPG III with RPG IV
being apparently used only in cases where the size of the program had exceeded RPG III's limits!

It's hard to understand why ISVs wouldn't convert their programs, if only to help with on-going maintenance chores. The two RPG flavors (as long as you stay away from the pure ILE aspects) are so compatible that the package in question has actually been successfully converted to RPG IV by relatively small shops (in one case by a one-man-band) that recognized the benefits of making the transition and got tired of waiting for the ISV. Just the extra white space alone, let alone tooling such as Rational Developer for Power and all of the other features of RPG IV, makes it so much easier to read and maintain compared with RPG III.

We've always been surprised that IBM hasn't applied more pressure (or incentive?) to large ISVs to keep their applications even moderately up to date with the modern system's capabilities. Strangely, we heard recently that one such ISV announced that their next release will require IBM i 7.1. Dare we hope this is a signal that their application code has been modernized to require it? Nah, that would be too much to expect.
 

RPG is Dead - Long Live RPG

About every two years some industry pundit or other takes it upon themselves to remind us that "RPG is Dead." We say "remind" because this theme recurs so frequently -- and always with the same predictable results. One group rushes to agree and joyfully starts banging the nails in the coffin lid, another (usually larger) group decries the statement, starts pulling out the nails, and affirms that the language is indeed alive and well in their world. Sometimes the discussion occurs on the Internet on one of the IBM i related lists, at other times it appears on websites such as LinkedIn, and from time to time it appears in the IBM i press. As Yogi Berra said, "It's deja vu all over again."

The latest, and the reason for this blog entry, appeared recently on iProDeveloper.com under the headline "Is RPG Dead? Why it's time to write the obituary" and was authored by Mel Beckman. Before you read on, you may want to read Mel's piece if you haven't already done so. You may notice that one of the people who commented on the piece was Jon. He has a lot more he could say about some of the points made in the article, but he's trying to restrain himself. We want to make some rather different points here and to dissect the article itself would not serve that purpose.

It seems to us that articles such as this only serve to harm the community. We are a (relatively) small group, and the vast majority of us still believe that IBM i on Power is the single best business system out there -- period. So why do we continue to make such negative public critiques as this? It seems to us that the only thing these discussions serve to do is to help reinforce all of the negative things that our "competition" like to say about us. "Look, even IBM i experts think RPG is dead." And of course if you say RPG is dead then you have pretty much condemned the platform. Make no mistake - that is exactly how the competition uses such articles. After all, a very large percentage of application code running on IBM i systems today is written in RPG. So connect the dots -- from an IBM i competitor's perspective.

We used to think that the positives of such discussions, namely encouraging people to explore new languages and techniques -- outweighed the negatives, but we are less and less convinced of that. 

RPG is a tool. Plain and simple. PHP is a tool. So is Java. So is C++. Just as we wouldn't use a hammer to try and smooth out a piece of wood so we (personally) would not want to implement our business rules in Java or C++. Java and other OO languages have a role for sure. There are many things that OO languages are well suited for. We just don't find the argument that business processes are among that set a convincing one. More importantly, we think that these so-called "modern" languages should be added to our tool kit -- not used to replace the tools we already have. Even if it made sense from a capability perspective (which we don't believe it does), it would make no economic sense.

We have no idea what plans IBM may, or may not, have for RPG or of the timeframe in which any new features might be delivered. But we're not sure an OO RPG would be a good option -- not because it would be too late, but simply because such a large percentage of RPGers don't take advantage of the more modern facilities such as subprocedures in the language today. Thinking that those stuck in RPG III mode would embrace OO just because it has an RPG label is just foolish. There are better things for IBM to spend their money on.

"(RPG is) ... no longer routinely used to write new programs that solve current problems." Really? Many, many shops are writing new, modern applications using RPG. Sure, there are shops out there still using outdated versions of the language and outdated tools and techniques. But there are also many mobile and Web-based applications out there with rock-solid, modern RPG at their core. 

Since we included a Yogi Berra quote earlier, perhaps it is appropriate to steal one from Mark Twain to close. "The report of my death was an exaggeration." 

 

 

New Champions; New Products

Last week's COMMON event was memorable in many ways--not the least of them being our rather
protracted trip home. The journey took more than 28 hours and left us with less than 20 hours before we left again for our next trip. Serves us right for wanting to go home and do the laundry at least!

One of the highlights of the week occurred during the conference's opening session when IBM announced the latest inductees into the ranks of IBM Champions for Power Systems. Three of our favorite IBM i friends--Scott Klement, Aaron Bartell and Jim Buck--were added to the list and we couldn't be happier. All of them have done so much to promote IBM i on Power and, in particular, to demonstrate just how far you can go with RPG. The page hasn't been updated yet, but eventually they should be appearing on the "Meet the Champions" page. Jon is hopeful Aaron might support his proposal that the champions be known as "Power Rangers." Susan, however, is less than thrilled with this idea.  

Not only was Scott named a "Champion" but he was also named this year's recipient of the Al Barsa Memorial Scholarship, which "honors an individual who exemplifies Al's commitment and dedication to the i community, is a mentor to others and is an advocate to the i community." We don't think you could write a better description of Scott if you tried--other than perhaps to add that he is also a terrific educator, dedicated father and train lover.

We're delighted to note that both Aaron and Scott will be speaking at our upcoming RPG & DB2 Summit in Minneapolis, so if you want to congratulate them both in person you could join us there.

New Products

We mentioned in a previous blog that we had had a sneak peek at a new product in the IBM i market that intrigued us and that we'd tell you more later. As it turns out there were such a wealth of new application-development products and major enhancements to existing ones announced during COMMON that we don't feel we can do them justice within this blog. Instead we are going to spend a little more time getting to know more about them and then we'll write a product roundup in a few weeks in IBM i EXTRA. If you want to be sure you don't miss it, you can subscribe on the IBM Systems Magazine website.

We will just briefly mention two that caught our eye. The first is the new Long Range product from Lansa. This product is targeted fair and square at the mobile market and is quite a departure for the company in that it not only supports use from Lansa, but also has an RPG version that allows you to write native mobile applications using RPG. The second involves Profound Logic's UI builder, which can now be used from other languages in addition to its role as providing the UI interface for Profound's RPG Open Access product. The initial roll-out demonstrates its use with PHP, which as regular readers know is a favorite of ours, but the company plans to document the tooling for use from any mainstream language on virtually any platform.

We'd like to mention more but you'll just have to wait for the IBM i EXTRA article to appear. There are just too many to talk about. We certainly live in interesting times.

Believers in Anaheim

This week, we are in Anaheim for the gathering of the clans otherwise known as COMMON. In fact it is now the last session of the last day, which is how we get the time to write this (slightly) belated blog entry.

Before we talk about COMMON we'd like to take a minute or two to give a quick shout out (and a virtual pat on the back) to the folks at looksoftware who organized last week's iBelieve event. In our previous column, we mentioned that there was a good lineup of speakers and that the event was free. What we hadn't expected was just how altruistic an effort this was on the part of look. Apart from a few banners, there was zero in the way of advertising and there were no product-specific presentations. Add to that the fact that they provided an excellent lunch for all attendees and you can understand why we feel they deserve a pat on the back.

The idea behind the iBelieve event was to inspire IBM i users to fully exploit their systems and to help them gather the ammunition needed to defend the system within their organization. With presentations by Dr. Frank Soltis, Trevor Perry and other IBM i zealots, it certainly achieved that. Jon talked about the free software out there and ways to use it to make yourself a hero to your users; Susan talked about the application development tools and features that tend to be underutilized. More than 100 people attended and all we talked to were delighted with the event and quite effusive in their thanks to the organizers. It was great to be a part of such an innovative idea. 

We are delighted that looksoftware took this initiative, it seems to us that this is exactly the kind of event that some group such as iManifest should be organizing. Events to "Rally the troops and arm them" shouldn't be left to a single vendor to fund -- they are too important.

COMMON

Having been away for a couple of years, it was great to meet up with some old friends that we just don't get a chance to see anywhere other than at COMMON. And of course it is always nice to have the chance to present to a really good-sized crowd. Jon even managed to attend a couple of sessions, which made a pleasant change. 

The location of the event this time around was the Disneyland Hotel which was "interesting." We have never seen anywhere quite so clean -- but on the other hand have also never previously experienced a hotel where waiting on hold for more than 30 minutes to order room service appeared to be the norm. That was not the "Disney quality" experience that we expected. 

We also learned (albeit not quite soon enough) that if you're at a COMMON event where food is being served, make sure you get your food in the first 20-30 minutes. Because even if the event is going on for 2 or 3 hours, any kind of substantial food will be gone in the first few minutes. So we had more than one "meal" made up of chips and Mickey Mouse rice krispie treats. Not sure if this phenomenon was due to the food budget being set too low or mismanagement on the part of the hotel.

The other thing that insidiously worms its way into your brain at Disneyland is the constant "happy music" that is piped throughout the complex. It had never occurred to us before that you could actually be made quite crotchety by such a constant barrage of artificial happiness. 

Those kinds of details aside, however, it was a great conference and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with old friends and making new ones! 

 

 

Back to the Future

That headline seems particularly apt for this week's blog. Why? Because on Thursday we head for Anaheim and the iBelieve event immediately followed by the COMMON conference. 

iBelieve is a new event, focused on the future of the IBM i platform. It's sponsored and organized by looksoftware and is free of charge, so the only barrier to admission is any travel costs you might incur in attending. There's a great lineup of speakers and topics so we encourage you to check it out. So that is the "Future" aspect.

The "Back" part relates to COMMON. This will be our first appearance at a  COMMON event for more than two years. During that period both of us have remained members and volunteers with the organization--we just haven't been speaking at the conference. We wrote extensively about why we had made the decision to take a break back in 2009. In the intervening period COMMON has indeed changed--not as much as we had hoped it would, but the changes coupled with an improved financial outlook for our own company make attending this year viable. It will be great to catch up with some old friends again.

But there's also a "Future" aspect to attending the COMMON conference. We've heard from a number of software vendors who are planning to launch new products at (or shortly before) the conference. Since our speaking load is lighter than at past COMMON conferences, we're planning on devoting more time to talking to the application-development tool vendors in the expo and will report back here on our findings. Some of the advance information hints at some really exciting developments. We've already had a sneak preview of one such product and we've tried it out ourselves (hint: on our iPad and iPhone!). We can't say more yet, but we'll fill you in after its announcement next week.

We don't want this to become a product review blog, but this is a critical time in the IBM application-modernization world and since we'll be able to discuss the products with the developers and other IBM i users it seems too good an opportunity to miss.

In addition to speaking and touring the expo we have two other public experiences planned. On Sunday evening we will be at the IBM Systems Magazine booth #404 from 5:30-6:30 for a "Meet the bloggers" appearance. Bit like a book signing but without the books? Then on Tuesday at lunchtime we will be manning the "Expert Bar" on the IBM stand. If you are the conference please drop by and say "Hi." We always enjoy meeting our readers.