Twenty years ago… I was typing on a dumb terminal, connected to a great big beige computer called IBM AS/400 with a thick grey Twinax cable. Screens were green on black, text only — or sometimes orange on black if you were posh. The internet was this thing we used to send emails (if you knew

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Modern ILE RPG now (finally) supports “fully free form” RPG Source code This means, we can write RPG code from column 1 to the end of the line — just like other languages. No more jumping to character 10 to get passed the old reserved (H,F,D,I,C,O) specification column. You must code **FREE in column 1

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RPG is not a Rocket Propelled Grenade RPG2 is that Logic Cycle Thing RPG3 is the System/38 version RPG400 is the revamped RPG3 that came with AS400 ​everything after that is RPG… unless its ILE then its RPGLE or sometimes RPG4, or its free format so its RPGLE /Free… or its SQL so its RPGSQL

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RPG Programmers are a strange breed of Human If you are a software developer then you will know that RPG is an IBM programming Language. It’s also a Rocket Propelled Grenade. It’s also an acronym for Role Playing Games. This blog will have lots of waffle about being an RPG Programmer and just the occasional

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*RPG – NO, RPG Developer doesnt mean that I write Role Playing Games, primarily aimed at men in basements pretending they are fit young elven women and running around casting spells 😉 So, as an RPG* Developer I am definitely biased towards IBM’s best and most versatile language. IBM RPG has evolved massively from the

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Twenty years ago these are the kind of things you had to know to work on the old AS400 systems. I found these on an old dusty corner of my homeserver. Enjoy the trip down memory lane or to use old RPG lingo AS400 NERD CABEQ ‘1’  START OLD RPG – RPG400 or COLUMN BASED

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Last night I was asked what the differences between RPG versions were: RPG3 RPG400 RPGLE: IBM have gone out of their way to make the version naming and releases differences so quirky, dirty and convoluted that I’m not even sure they know what to call the current incarnation of this beautiful programming language. Anyhooo, here’s

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Found some more old documents (I didnt write them so dont shoot the poor AS400 programming messenger) that I’ve decided to move to the forum rather than leave in the dusty corners of my hard drive…..

 

1. Advantages of  ILE:

 

RPG IV is more readable

Allows for greater application modularity with static binding which means there are fewer external calls.

Enhances programmer productivity by allowing greater code re use

Enhances mixed language support by allowing the binding ILE languages  into a single program

Builds a foundation for  the future by moving closer to object oriented design , modular programming and code reuse

 

Enhancements in RPGIV

 

Mixed Case entry permitted

Compiler is not case sensitive 

Compiler can translate mixed case to upper case.

Character names allowed

Full DDS length supported

...
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