Are You Proactive or Sedentary?

[quillenb@jaygroup.com]

Are You Proactive or Sedentary?

** This thread discusses the article: Are You Proactive or Sedentary? **
I found this particular topic, RPG Development - Proactive vs Sedentary, to be very interesting and very timely for our organization. As the Applications Development Manager, I don't believe I fall into the stereotypical manager indicated within your text. I have a wonderful staff of developers, certainly not all RPG, that definitely know much more than I do. With a staff of 15, I don't have the time to keep up-to-date on coding best practices or even the newest technologies available. However, I count on my people to keep us up-to-date. I do mandate that we keep up-to-date and provide the necessary training and education to allow for that. Our RPG developers have varying skills with all developing in RPGIV and, at least half, using RPG Free. We do have legacy RPGIII that must be maintained / enhanced, but those programs are converted to RPGIV whenever we need to touch them. A few of the developers have enough Java experience to utilize those skills when appropriate. We also utilize embedded SQL quite often and when appropriate. Other skills being employed are with Lotus Notes (numerous applications, both client and web based), ColdFusion, Java, .Net, VB, and Lansa for the web. I've been with The Jay Group for over 5 years coming from a consulting background. The main reason I joined the company (I had the luxury of being here for over a year as a consultant) was because the IT organization functions more like a consulting firm than any other IT organization I've encountered (not to mention that it's a fantastic place to work overall). We are a profit center for the organization as well as the typical cost center from a corporate standpoint. As a marketing fulfillment company, we provide IT services to our clients by enhancing our system offerings to meet their needs. We do not ever mandate a client conform to us, but rather we conform to them. This requires us to stay up-to-date and ahead of the curve with development practices, systems and service offerings. I've been in those "sedentary" shops and never enjoyed my time there more than about 3 years. As I stated before, I've been with this company now for over 5 years and have no desire to make a move or even consider one. This is in great part due to the emphasis the company places on technology and their willingness to allow us to stay current, even ahead of current. I wish all IT organizations could experience the freedom and support we have in supporting business growth through the use of "up-to-date" technologies and techniques.

[Guest.Visitor]

Are You Proactive or Sedentary?

** This thread discusses the article: Are You Proactive or Sedentary? **
I'm a Sr. Programmer Analyst in a corporate IT department of a manufacturing firm. Our company staffed up with some Sr. Java developers and offered in-house Java training. I was the first RPG developer chosen and for the last year I've spent half my time as an RPG developer supporting an Iseries ERP package with RPGIV and the other half of my time as a Java Developer using WSAD (or RAD) and Struts to build web portal applications. I still love RPGIV and the Iseries but I'm glad that I'm getting a taste of the OO world. I like the idea of developing in a language that can run on many platforms. Moreover, because Java depends on SQL for database IO, I had to improve my SQL skills which made me a better SQLRPGLE programmer as well as a better Java programmer. In addition, I've been learning how to write SQL stored procedures on the Iseries and SQL server platforms. Learning Java to supplement my RPGIV knowledge has made me a better and more knowledgeable IT Professional.

[Guest.Visitor]

Are You Proactive or Sedentary?

** This thread discusses the article: Are You Proactive or Sedentary? **
I know of a shop that jumped on the ILE band wagon many years ago without really knowing how it all worked. Because of bad design and poor programming they now have monolithic ILE RPG programs that perform poorly because 1) poor SQL implementation, 2) poor use of activation groups, 3) improper use of prototypes and subprocedures. Programming life is so complex these days. It's amazing that any programs work at all!

[ntpunzo@aol.com]

Are You Proactive or Sedentary?

** This thread discusses the article: Are You Proactive or Sedentary? **
This whole dicussion comes down to can something new do, something I am already doing better? And by better I mean faster, easier/cheaper to maintain. Or can something new do something I want to do but can't do now. And in both cases, MOST IMPORTANT, is Can I afford to do this? Remember people this is business we are talking about. Our jobs are to make our business's run, not to give us a platform to become know it all computer whiz's.

[Guest.Visitor]

Are You Proactive or Sedentary?

** This thread discusses the article: Are You Proactive or Sedentary? **
Bob, I know your focus is learning new skills for iSeries but I have a different perpsective. I'm a hired gun. I go where the demand is. In 2002, I saw demand for my AS400 RPG skills, including RPGIV and ILE, decline. I've been learning new stuff my entire career. During the last three years, I've been developing in C++, VB, Access, and SQL Server on Wintel and unix boxes. A lot of the development has to do with web applications. I have done very little AS400 development; however, many of the file servers are iSeries. I've learned Java and VB.NET but have not used them much. Interest in AS400 skills seems to be increasing again. My current contract is maintenance in RPGIII and new ILE development. I see some demand coming back for iSeries contracts. Most of these places don't have iSeries staff anymore. The new development demand for contractors seems to be going to Java using Websphere. I don't know Websphere so I'll have to learn it. Before 2002, my primary business was iSeries development. Those shops usually had very, very sedentary employees. When they found out I was always taking courses and updating my skills, they laughed. The only thing they wanted to do was hurry home to mow the lawn watch some T.V. One shop brought me in to teach their developers RPGIV and ILE. It was like they were brain dead. That shop still has RPGIII but got rid of their staff. They hired Java developers. They brought me back in to teach the Java staff how the iSeries works. It was easier to teach the Java people how the iSeries works than to teach the iSeries developers new languages and techniques. It was a great chance for me to start learning Java, too. Those Java developers like the iSeries. They think it's one of the best boxes ever built. I keep telling them it is THE best ever. They are impressed by its uptime and ease of administration. They do not think speed is an issue. Had I not been willing and able to learn the new technologies and practices, I would not be in the industry today. I'll continue to learn what I need to stay current and employable. And, that is my goal. Tom.

[Guest.Visitor]

Are You Proactive or Sedentary?

** This thread discusses the article: Are You Proactive or Sedentary? **
I just returned from vacation and I'm fired up to get going. I don't want to just sit at my desk doing the status quo while waiting for my vacation time to accumulate for another window of time off. What a great article to read upon my return! There are so many possibilities with the new iSeries machines and Operating Systems 5.0 and higher that it just seems a company is wasting their money by purchasing one of these machines and not having the skilled staff to run them to the fullest potential. And the potential of RPGIV has been out there for over a decade I believe! There just cannot be an excuse to not get going with more modern techniques somewhere in your job. Yes, I still deal with some vendor RPG III code; old numeric date fiels, etc, but there is always time for new techniques. And if there wasn't I'd be moving on to a new employer. Happy Happy Joy Joy for keen management where I'm at. I see a number of posts on this topic in regards to failed projects and Java performance issues. A failed project is just that; most likely poorly executed and failed project management, which I've found is quite common with corporations and their software projects. Failure of a project cannot be blamed on RPG IV or 'new technology'. But failure gives you an experience that can make you more successful next time if you look at the real reasons the project failed. Furthermore, training is available for project management as well, but I'm sure the interest in that topic is even percentage points lower than the numbers of people getting involved in the iSeries community as Bob states in his article. As far as Java performance goes, I think it's slightly off-topic and gotten far more attention than it deserves at this point. My advice with new technology is to not try to rewrite an entire system right away with techniques you do not yet understand. Pick a simple program to start with, maybe something like a utility that only you and other programmers will use. Whatever level you are at, try and develop this program using some 'new' code that you have not used before. Don't overdue it. Maybe you want to use date fields for the first time, or maybe your first ILE procedure call, or maybe you want to make it a goal to not use any 'gotos' in this program. Whatever it is, make it attainable and a challenge. When you finish it, think of it as version 1.0 of your new skills and use it to build on for that next level, and keep it going! Use these new skills on your next project AFTER you understand them and see how they can be implemented most efficiently. And most definitely, take advantage of training classes! 'Carpae Diem' fellow iSeries folks! - Jefferson