Everything You Need to Know About AS400 RPG Programmers

1. Everything You Need to Know About RPG Programmers Are you an AS400 user, striving to boost operational efficiency via modernizing your existing AS400 applications? If yes, you have landed on the right resource today. Since their inception, Report programming language (RPG), a high-level programming language, and IBM AS400 iSeries software have simplified the development and execution of business applications. RPG, which serves a wide range of business applications, is an IBM-copyrighted module and users can access the majority of its versions on IBM AS400-based systems. With passing time, the nomenclature and the format of RPG language and its companion Operating System may have evolved, but their companionship has been necessary for RPG programmers to ensure smooth business processing for decades. Thus, RPG programming language remains on top of the high-level programming languages, bridging the gap between legacy systems and modern demands.

2. Did you know that the history of RPG is as interesting as its present? Moving on, let’s dive into the intriguing journey that has shaped the RPG programming language into the big wheel it is today. What’s the History of AS400 RPG Programming Language? The history of the RPG programming language is quite long. IBM developed the language in 1959 as the Report Program Generator. Back then, it was a tool designed as an alternative to the punch card processing system. Later, it was updated to the RPG II after the development of the IBM system/3. Since then, RPG language has evolved into a high-level programming language like COBOL and PL/I. According to Gartner-RPG, being “just another modern language,” is a fixed-format language for which various attributes need to be defined. If the correct code for the correct column is not inserted, it shows an error. This is a foreign concept developed by IBM, and it was only experienced in other languages before its emergence. In 1994, the (ILE) or RPG IV version of the RPG programming language allowed for some free-format expressions, but the code was still primarily fixed format in nature. In 2001, RPG programmers could write the logical portion of RPG language programs in free form, but declarations of data and procedures still required columnar code. This was a significant step in making the RPG syntax more similar to the syntax of modern languages. The same procedure was followed till 2012 when all the code of the programming language RPG virtually became free form from fixed form. Today, you can show an application written in modern RPG language to JAVA and C developers, and they will feel like home. Does this mean they don’t need to invest time to learn the programming language RPG?

3. No! What this means is – the process will be completely different and modernized than before. From then to now, RPG programming language has been prevalent among modern AS400 users, with RPG IV, or ILE as its latest version. The language provides a highly enabling programming environment for IBM i AS400 developers or RPG programmers to develop modern and efficient applications. In the initial stage after the development of the programming language RPG, the substantial point was that it was well-versed in the program cycle. Read More: https://www.integrativesystems.com/article/as400-rpg-programmers/