Mentoring and More

We were particularly pleased to see the comments to our blog two weeks ago on training new RPG programmers. It's always gratifying to know that you are not the only people in the world who think that educating our replacements is a good idea. Maybe some of you want to work forever--not us--we have many things we'd like to do.

Among the comments was one from Torbjörn Appehl who mentioned that in Sweden a company named Tieto had recently undertaken a program to train young recruits in the joys of RPG. We mentioned this story last year in our blog, but at the time didn't know the name of the company, etc. Now, thanks to Torbjörn, we have been able to look at the company's website and we highly recommend you to pay a visit too. This is a company to be watched. If you don't live in one of the countries Tieto serves, you're forgiven for going off and weeping quietly in a corner as you bemoan the state of IT companies in North America and probably elsewhere.

So many companies seem content to simply deal with resource shortages by outsourcing, which is not only a short-term solution, but also one that in our opinion is also shortsighted. Do we really want our children to be the hewers of wood and and drawers of water for the rest of the world because we were not willing to invest in them? On the Tieto website pay attention to the mention of mentoring programs and other similar investments the company makes. Do you know of anyone in North America doing that? Or are most, as we suspect, simply bemoaning the skills shortage, which is not just an IBM i and RPG issue, and doing nothing about it.

This issue is fresh in our minds as it came up during the roundtable discussion that opened the annual WMPCA Spring Conference, which we are attending this week. Present at the meeting were a number of present and former students of our friend Jim Buck, who we mentioned in the earlier blog entry. Some of them described the importance of mentoring and internship programs to their success and how hard such opportunities were to come by. Jim is currently working on ways of extending the reach of his programs and we hope to work with him on that. Something needs to happen.

Another comment on the blog came from Christian in France who works for a French training company that runs introductory IBM i and RPG training two or three times a year for clients whose companies have recruited young programmers. We were particularly pleased to see Christian's comments regarding modern programming practices and tooling.

In part he said: "Of course, we use SQL and free RPG, even if we have to talk about DDS and fixed form RPG. Our tools are system i Navigator and RDP, no choice!..."

"As you can see, it is possible to teach 'IBM i', it's a wonderful system with many advantages that can be interesting for young people, but we have to show them the 'sunny side'."

The "sunny side" indeed Christian! No young programmer in their right mind is going to be interested in RPG II style fixed-format coding and SEU. You'll be lucky if you keep them for a month, even if they are an unpaid intern! Show them modern RPG and RDP and you'll find a very different response.

Thanks also to the others who commented on the blog. We really appreciate your feedback.

Another point that came up during this evening's discussion was that most IBM i programmers aren't just programmers. They're really business analysts that implement the results of their analysis in RPG. This in some ways reinforces the point we made about retraining experienced business people and teaching them how to program. It was the way Jon's father broke into programming and we know many other people whose entry into the world of computing took a similar path. Now if only we could work out a way to make that happen on a large enough scale to make a dent in unemployment levels and the RPG programmer shortage that would be progress!

A Mixed Bunch

No one single theme this week - instead a range from industry news to a request for help.

First, the news.

Our good friend, and regular speaker at the RPG & DB2 Summit, Scott Klement announced last week that he was leaving his current job as IT Manager with Klement Sausage and taking up a position with application modernization vendor Profound Logic. Our first thought was that this was terrific news for both Scott and Profound. Our second was that all over the IBM i world there had to be countless ISVs kicking themselves in the backside over having missed out on the chance to hire Scott. We've always been impressed by Profound's offerings - now that Scott is on board we can't wait to see what they come up with next.

Talking of Summit, we'll be opening registration shortly for the Minneapolis event in October (23rd to 25th). We're really, really looking forward to this one as we're back at the Sofitel hotel and that has absolutely the best food we've ever had at a conference location. It also gives us the opportunity to visit Rochester while we're in the area and to catch up with some friends. We'll let you know when the updated website is open for business.

Just in case you aren't subscribed to IBM i EXTRA, we thought we'd mention that EXTRA recently published the first part of our newly revised "RSE Quick Start Guide" last week. As our followers know, we're RSE (aka, RDP) users and fans. We are often asked "how do I get started with RSE?" and the Guide is our attempt to answer that question. The full Guide isn't ready yet. We'll let you know when it is (hopefully in the next couple of weeks). Until then, take a look at part 1. 

A Plea for Help 

We were discussing modernization options with a client the other day and were surprised to find that they were unaware of many of the current tools and options. Rather than try to build them a list of tools to review we hit the Web to try and find a single source that covered all** of the current tools and where they fit in the marketplace. We couldn't find one. In fact, the one we kept finding was our own series "From Green to Dream," which appeared back in 2003 and 2004.

We wrote two of the articles in that series. The first part was an overview of the considerations involved in choosing an application modernization approach. The second (Part 4 - Developing New Applications) dealt with the tools available in the marketplace to develop new applications.

It's hard to believe that it was nearly nine years ago that we wrote those articles, and of course a lot has changed in the intervening period. JavaScript libraries have simplify the job of building sophisticated Web interfaces. Open Access (and in particular its availability free-of-charge with the compiler) has spawned new tools and approaches. Refacing tools have become more and more sophisticated. Mobile apps have emerged as THE hot topic and show no sign of slowing down. And on and on.

So - we've decided it is time to revisit the topic and bring it up-to-date. And that is where you come in. If you work for an ISV that has a tool in this arena, or if you are a satisfied customer of such a vendor, then please let us know. Email us at contact@partner400.com and give us the details of what you have to offer. Please note that we are fundamentally looking for tools for 5250 modernization, not office integration, etc. We may cover such tools in the future, but right now if it can't replace a 5250 we aren't interested in it.

 

** "All" - we know we'll miss some - it's inevitable. We had some really "grumpy" letters about tools that we had "missed" in those previous articles but we're going to try to make it as comprehensive approach as we can. Many of the best tools originate outside of North America and so it is harder for us to hear of them. Hopefully more overseas readers will see this and help us out in this regard.

 

 

 

 

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." 

 

 

Rational Gives an Early Valentine With Free Open Access

They love us. They really love us! Finally IBM Rational has admitted the folly of trying to persuade us to buy our own gifts and is giving us Open Access for free.

Today's announcement confirms the rumors that have been circulating for the last few months. Namely that the OA run-time components are being bundled with IBM i and the compiler components are being included with the compiler. Of course it will all have to be distributed as PTFs for a while, but over time will be shipped as standard. We just read Steve Wills' You and i blog and noticed that our "Valentine" headline is even more appropriate than we thought because the PTFs are due to be available starting on Feb. 14!

The link we have for the formal announcement letter doesn't seem to be working right now so we'll post that in the comments as soon as we can confirm it.

We think this is a good thing for several reasons:

1. ISVs that have products that utilize OA no longer have to get customers to install an additional chargeable feature before they can even take advantage of a free trial. IBM partly addressed this by making a trial version of OA available a few months ago but it was still an impediment.
2. Smaller ISVs that might otherwise have developed handlers couldn't justify doing so since, in some instances, the cost to the client of installing OA would have exceeded what they could reasonably charge for the product. 
3. Open-source advocates were never going to embrace writing handlers that relied on a chargeable product.
4. Similarly the number of magazine articles on the subject of OA has been severely lacking. Although we have written a couple ourselves we're only aware of two or three other writers who have done anything. In fact we had given up writing on the subject, other than here in the blog. The reason is the same--there's little satisfaction in writing an article on a subject that you know most of your readers can't put into practice. Now that everyone will be able to use the examples we present we'll be dusting off a couple of ideas that we have on hold. In the meantime you can find our earlier articles on OA here and here.
5. Last, but not least, it will hopefully dispel the notion that the only thing OA is good for is modernizing 5250 applications. As we've said before, while this is a very important function of OA it's only a tiny part of what can be done with it. We need more applications that exploit email, processing IFS files, Web services, etc. OA is an excellent way to enable such features for "the masses." Even highly skilled RPG programmers can make use of OA. For example, during a recent discussion with IBM's Barbara Morris, we discovered that even though she is comfortable with using the IFS APIs, she actually finds it easier to use an IFS handler that she wrote herself whenever she needs to process IFS files in RPG.

Rational has shown us a little love here. Let's return the favor and thank them the best way we can--by using OA to add new functionality to our favorite language.

Please use the Comments section of this blog to pass on your ideas of the kind of handlers you'd like to see written or indeed to tell us about those that you plan to write.

Looking Forward to Saying 'Yes' in 2012

We've said it before and we'll say it again--the current economic climate is presenting many IBM i shops with the perfect opportunity to prove their worth and make sure the IBM i (and they) are around for the future. A lot of the more ambitious (and often futile) major software changes are on hold. In other cases (and we learned of another such example today) the financial climate is making companies take a long hard look at the true economic realities of the "miracle" software that they have been struggling to implement. The result of such reality checks is invariably a realization that the new system has racked up at least twice the originally projected cost, uses far more hardware and manpower than promised, and often under performs. Pity that it took an economic disaster to make people realize what many of us could have told them before they started!

One successful tactic that an increasing number of shops are trying involves having your IT department act as a vendor. If you know that software/hardware package XYZ is under consideration, ask to be considered a vendor. Put together a bid and ask for it to be considered as an alternative. Even if you factor in the costs of a major rewrite of your existing applications, add the cost of learning new skills, and add in a few experienced contractors to help mentor the team and bring them up to speed on the "new stuff" we'll lay you odds that you will still come up with a budget that is less than 50 percent of package XYZ. You'll also find that you can set a project time-line that is significantly shorter than that for XYZ, and will offer greater customization for the users. You can do it. It works. After all, who knows your business better than you?

In other shops, we're seeing smaller projects emerge where IBM i developers seize the opportunity to show off "what i can do" that impresses their user communities. You may be surprised how much impact you can have by trying your hand at small modernization projects, such as producing browser interfaces to what were spooled file reports (many ways to do this, most requiring minimal modifications to existing RPG report programs) or providing an easy Web service via XMLSERVICE.

On the subject of modernization, Jon did a lunchtime seminar for the Atlanta User Group (amcu.org) today titled "Modernizing Your Applications--For Free" where he focussed on many of the free tools that we have mentioned here and in our columns for IBM i EXTRA. It was a good crowd--bigger than they've had in a while apparently--and the subject fit in well with their theme for this year's education series, which is modernization.

Jon challenged his audience at AMCU today to "just say yes" when requests come in for "out of the ordinary" application functions. Say yes and worry about how implementation. If you say no or even if you say, "Let me get back to you on that after studying the options," before you know it, someone in the Windows group will have jumped on the project or the users will have found a packaged "solution". As a result, you may well end up spending more time in the long run wrestling with integrating what they did than it would have taken to implement the project on i to begin with.

AMCU is also planning to cooperate with other user groups that are working to update their members' skills. One such group, SEMIUG (the Southeast Michigan iSeries User Group), is currently working on a collaborative project aimed at teaching members new skills while helping to demonstrate the viability on the IBM i as a modern platform. In fact SEMIUG's meeting tonight is dedicated to a progress report and anyone can join the webcast and see what they are up to. See here for details.

We applaud efforts like this and intend to work with these groups whenever possible.