did anyone ever program in RPG?

[Duane Hess]

I programmed in RPG-II a small amount in the early (mid?) 80's.

BAL was my favorite (on a S/360 model 30) and on S/370 & 9370 systems under VM. Most all programs written by me were in S/360 Assembly or FORTRAN. I have programmed in COBOL also.

A former student offered me a limited-term, part-time (weekend) job writing RPG-II on a System/36 (S/34 upgrade) for some "catch-up" programs their company wanted. Basic database extract/report & data entry appliations.

RPG-II was surprisingly easy, quick & effective. A first review of the language makes it appear "twinky" and difficult. Once you used it & learned how to use and when to "ignore" (control) the program-cycle the "lights will go on."

The System/36, although a general purpose computer, had the operating system/development environment closely tied with writing RPG. Applications with a moderate amount of conditional testing of data and simpler programs are a breeze in RPG-II.

Such programs could be written an about a 1/4th the time as COBOL and developed & running in 1/3-1/5th the time of COBOL, especially on a System/36. As the S/36 had the editor, screen development and generally the OS, in appearance terms, could much be described as a RPG program development environment.

I never used a System/38, but am somewhat familiar with the product. It used RPG-III, which added IF-THEN-ELSE directly as a language construct as opposed to the "tricky" and often convoluted flag-structure of RPG/RPG-II to accomplish the same. (been too long to remember details). I'm pretty sure RPG-III also had the COBOL equivalent of procedures (PERFORM).

Man, haven't thought about all that in years!