Provides a strong foundation in the essentials of business programming, featuring the newest version of the RPG language: RPG IV. Focusing on realworld problems and down to earth solutions. Helps you master the latest techniques and features of RPG to make you stand out in the AS/400 employment market. Softcover. DLC: RPG (Computer program language).
RPG IV, the version of the RPG language that participates in IBM’s Integrated Language Environment (ILE), represents a dramatic step forward in RPG’s evolution. RPG IV diverges from its predecessor, RPG III, in significant ways. However, to encourage adoption of the new ILE RPG/400 compiler and to prevent a nightmare for those programmers faced with maintaining older RPG programs, IBM made this latest release largely “backward-compatible” with older versions of RPG. Programs written before 1995 can easily be converted to RPG IV and subsequently modified, without the need for complete program rewrites. Although such backward-compatibility is a practical solution for language developers, it means that the language must retain some components that, in fact, the new features make obsolete.
Writing a textbook about a new version of a language, then, presents authors with a difficult decision: How much emphasis should be given to those features that, although still available in the language, really represent an outmoded approach to programming? Giving obsolete syntax equal importance with the language’s more modern features might inappropriately encourage students to write outdated code; at the very least, equal coverage can unnecessarily complicate the learning process. On the other hand, ignoring those obsolete features completely would give students an incomplete understanding of the language and would ill prepare them for program-maintenance tasks.
This textbook tries to solve the dilemma by initially presenting students with the most suitable, modern techniques that RPG IV offers for solving typical programming problems. Thus, Chapters 2 through 12 feature only the appropriate methods and strategies that contemporary programmers use. In recognition of program-maintenance needs, however, the final chapter of the book (Chapter 13: Maintaining the Past) details the features of RPG IV that students must know about when they tackle maintenance tasks in the real world.
Programming in RPG IV, like its predecessor, Programming in RPG/400, tries to bridge the gap between academia and the business world by presenting all the facets of RPG IV needed by a professional programmer. The material is introduced incrementally, and the book is organized so that students quickly begin writing complete -- although simple -- programs. Each successive chapter introduces additional information about RPG IV syntax and fundamental programming methods, so that students become increasingly proficient at developing RPG IV programs -- programs that grow in complexity as students progress through the book.
Each chapter includes a brief overview, which orients students to the material contained in the chapter, and a chapter summary, which reviews the chapter’s major points. The end-of-chapter sections include discussion/review questions, exercises, and programming assignments designed to help students develop their analytical and problem-solving skills, as well as their proficiency with RPG IV syntax. These end-of-chapter sections remain basically unchanged from Programming in RPG/400, although they now require solutions in RPG IV, rather than RPG III.
The programming assignments at the end of each chapter are arranged roughly in order of difficulty, so that instructors can assign programs appropriate to their time schedules and their students’ abilities. Although none of the program solutions are long by commercial standards, some of the necessary algorithms are quite difficult; the assignments require time and effort on the part of the students to develop correct solutions. Unfortunately, there is no “easy road” to becoming a good programmer, nor can students learn to deal with program complexity by merely reading or talking it about it. Programming, as much as any other activity we know, is truly a matter of “learning by doing.” 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 work hard to succeed in this profession.
To give students experience developing application systems, rather than programming in a vacuum, most of the programming assignments relate to three fictitious companies and their application needs (described in Appendix F). By working on these assignments, students should gain a sense of how a company’s data files are repeatedly used by numerous applications for different, related purposes.
Included in this new edition of Programming in RPG IV are new chapters on defining data with Definition Specifications (Chapter 3) and modular programming concepts (Chapter 10), as well as an appendix summarizing RPG IV specifications, keywords, built-in functions, operation codes, and edit codes (Appendix A) and an RPG IV style guide (Appendix B). All other material has been fully updated and is current to V4R4.
Although a complete introduction to using the AS/400 is beyond the scope of this text, Appendix C introduces students to working on the system using the Programmer menu and Programming Development Manager (PDM). Appendix D acquaints students with Source Entry Utility (SEU). Appendix E provides some insights into program testing and debugging, often bewildering processes for beginning programmers.
Depending on the length of the school term and the pace of the course, some instructors may choose to present this material over two terms. Alternately, you may decide to omit some of the more technical chapters of the text or skip those chapters less central to RPG IV. To provide students with the minimal information needed by entry-level programmers, you should present Chapters 1 through 10 and 13.
An instructors manual is available to those instructors adopting this text for classroom use. The manual provides answers to the review questions and solutions to the exercises. The manual also includes a CD with the data files needed for the programming assignments, the source code for the solutions to the programming assignments, and copies of the output produced by the solutions.
