Programming in RPG/400 (2nd Edition) - Softcover

Yaeger, Judy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1882419235 ISBN 13: 9781882419234

Publisher: 29th Street Pr, 1995

Synopsis

Overviews programming and business programming concepts and the development of the RPG language, covering principles of top-down design, interactive programming, data definition, and inter-program communications. Chapters contain questions, exercises, and programming assignments. Appendices cover AS/400 features, SEU, and debugging programs. This second edition includes a new appendix that correlates the key concepts from each chapter with their RPG IV counterparts. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

About this title

About the Author

Judy Yaeger is an associate professor in the Business Information Systems Department at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI. She has a Ph.D. in experimental psychology and an M.B.A. with an emphasis in computer information systems. She also is a technical editor of NEWS 3X/400, the leading technical journal for IBM midrange professionals. Judy has more than twelve years experience teaching RPG at both the community college and university levels. She recently spent a year on sabbatical leave in Malaysia, where she taught courses at Sunway College and investigated the development of computer information systems within the country.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

This second edition is designed to provide a transition from RPG/400 to RPG IV, the version of RPG that participates in IBM s Integrated Language Environment (ILE). Look for the new final chapter (Chapter 14: Looking Ahead: RPG IV), which summarizes the key features of RPG IV. In addition, although the content of the original chapters still focuses on RPG/400, a new appendix (Appendix E: RPG IV and RPG/400) points out how the material in each chapter is affected by the new version of the language. These effects consist of Mandatory Changes -- features of RPG/400 that will not work with the RPG IV compiler -- and Optional Changes -- enhancements to RPG/400 that can be used, but are not required by the compiler.

Other changes to the text include revised figures (reworked for increased clarity) and a section on externally described printer files (added to Chapter 5: Externally Described Files). Finally, numerous small (but annoying) code inaccuracies have been corrected.

The purpose of this book is to instruct students in the syntax of RPG/400 and the programming methods used by today's RPG programmers -- and to prepare them for the time when RPG IV has been more universally adopted. Its primary purpose is to serve as a classroom text for a first course that introduces students to RPG programming, but it is also suitable for those experienced programmers who wish to learn another language.

The book attempts to bridge the gap between academia and the business world by presenting all the facets of RPG/400 needed by a professional programmer. The material is introduced gradually, and it is organized such that students will be able to write simple procedural programs by the end of Chapter 2. Each successive chapter adds additional facts about RPG and programming techniques to make students increasingly knowledgeable about RPG and, as the term progresses, increasingly proficient at programming.

Each chapter includes a brief overview to orient students to the material contained in the chapter and a chapter summary reiterating the major points covered. In addition, the chapters contain discussion/review questions, exercises, and programming assignments. A major challenge for a programming instructor is to help students develop their analytical and problem solving skills, so that they can apply concepts to new situations. The end-of-chapter material is designed to make students think, rather than simply repeat memorized terms or recode algorithms presented within the chapters.

The assignments at the ends of the chapters are arranged in order of increasing difficulty, so that instructors can assign programs appropriate to their time schedules and their students' abilities. Some of the programs are difficult and will require time and effort on the part of the students to develop correct solutions. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to learn to become a good programmer, nor can you learn to deal with program complexity by merely reading or talking about it. Those students interested in becoming MIS professionals must recognize that they have chosen a rewarding but demanding and challenging profession, and they need to realize that they must be willing to devote the effort required to succeed in that profession.

To provide students with a sense of application system development, and not just stand-alone programs, most of the programming assignments are part of three application systems described in Appendix D. By working on these assignments, students should gain a sense of how data files are repeatedly used by numerous applications for different, related purposes.

Although a complete introduction to using the AS/400 is beyond the scope of this text, Appendices A and B introduce students to working on the system using the Programmer Menu, PDM, and SEU. Appendix C tries to provide some insights into program testing and debugging, often a bewildering process for beginning programmers.

Depending on the length of your term and the pace you wish to set, instructors may choose to present this material over two terms or to omit some of the more technical chapters less central to RPG/400. If you have already installed V3R1 of OS/400 on your system, you should direct students to read the appropriate section from Appendix E as you present each chapter; they should also read Chapter 14. If you still work with an RPG/400 compiler, you simply may want students to read Chapter 14 at the end of the term to acquaint them with the features of RPG IV. Chapters 1-9 and 13 definitely should be presented to provide students with the minimal information needed by entry-level RPG programmers.

An instructor's manual is available to those instructors adopting this text for classroom use; the manual includes answers to the review questions, solutions to the exercises, and solutions to the programming assignments. The manual also comes with a diskette containing all the data files needed by the programming assignments and the source code of solutions to the programming assignments, as well.

Edition details

• Publisher: 29th Street Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1882419235
• ISBN 13: 9781882419234
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 481