It seems to me that there are two broad categories of end-user iSeries shops out there: technologically proactive and technologically sedentary.

But the trend seems to have moved toward more sedentary shops lately. There is a core base of about 1,500 to 3,000 active iSeries professionals out there. You see and read them on the forums here at MCPressOnline.com, on the email lists, on the RPG IV forum at RPGIV.com, at RPG World, and elsewhere. Compare that to over 500,000 systems installed worldwide, and you're talking about one half of 1%; that percentage isn't good even by junk mail campaign standards.

In my view, a sedentary shop is one that is stuck in RPG III or RPG II, grudgingly keeps existing code working, maintains the code through quick fixes, and rarely or never tries to do interesting new things with the applications.

A lot of sedentary shops have their hands tied for various reasons, including these:

• The programming manager doesn't want the staff to know more than he or she does.
• The top technical person in the shop is, truth be known, clueless about a lot of contemporary technology but is great at fooling the "powers that be" into thinking that if he doesn't know about something, it can't be done or doesn't exist (also known as "faking it").
• The company stopped communicating with the IT staff for one of two reasons: Either IT has been consistently unable to accommodate end-users' requests or the code has been in place for so long that the end-users are used to it and thus have stopped asking for enhancements.
• The company uses a third-party package and the in-house staff only modifies reports and screen layouts and performs other minor "enhancements."
• The staff is stalled in RPG III and cannot really make interesting enhancements due to the code base being in RPG III.

Whatever the cause, the effect is that programmers are getting bored and corporate executives are assuming that cool new features or applications cannot be created using the current base of IT assets. Remember, the iSeries and the IT staff should be considered IT assets.

This reminds me of the airline industry (not the auto industry, which our industry is so often compared with). Back when commercial airliners were a novelty, flight attendants and pilots were treated like royalty. Every kid wanted to be a pilot or flight attendant, and every parent wanted their kid to be one. Today, flying is so commonplace that many people are buying airplanes, hiring corporate planes, or ruggedly using commercial airlines. While some of us respect flight attendants, many of us think of them as the people who put the cart in the way when we're trying to get to the bathroom.

Today, IT departments are often thought of as the people who are in the way of end-users getting what they really need. Our ego-stroking days are diminishing, and we're rarely thought of as being part of that intriguing new technology that's going to make everyone happy and rich.

And it's our own fault. That's right; you can't blame anyone for this situation. We always have a choice; either we take action or, through our inaction, we live with what happens. If your shop is sedentary, you contributed to the situation.

It's All About the User Interface

Green-screen or text-based user interfaces are great for shop floor applications, some point of sale applications, distribution center software, warehouse applications, and situations where the environment is unclean. Nothing beats banging on a keyboard in these environments.

But end-user office applications should almost never be 5250 interfaces. While I've been saying this since the late 1980s, IBM has yet to add a native GUI to OS/400. OK, so they're not going to do it natively. But that doesn't mean we can't use CGI/Web/browser interfaces, JSPs, or even (please forgive me) that poorly performing language called Java. All of these technologies allow us to create applications with a non-5250 look and feel.

What does this have to do with a sedentary programming lifestyle? Plenty. Things will stay as they are unless you step up and change things for the better.

Here are some things you can do:

• Find that end-user application request and implement it in a browser using CGI RPG or a JSP.
• Convert several applications to RPG IV and then add that missing feature the end-user has been waiting years for.
• Get involved in the budget process for IT.

Implement Applications in CGI RPG or JSP

Putting a browser interface on general applications such as inquiries, reports, or data entry programs is so easy that I think it's laughable when I see people building a subfile program or other green-screen application. How interesting it is when the new models of automobiles come out and they look exactly like they have for the last 20+ years. Oh, that was worth waiting for!

CGI RPG is the best solution for quick development using your current RPG skills. But JSP provides a little better control over the user interface; thus, you end up with a more refined interface. JSPs are a lot more complex, however.

Convert to RPG IV

It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Just take that one application that's clean and has been working for years and move it to RPG IV. Put it into production (after testing it, of course) and then ask the end-users if they want anything changed. Then, go in and add that date routine using ADDDUR or SUBDUR with native date fields, add more function via subprocedures, or write data out to the IFS in MS Excel-compatible format. Just do it!

Get Involved in the IT Budget

If you've been disappointed that another shop has software X and your shop doesn't, then get involved in the budget process and ask management to put dollars into the budget for software X. I've done this before; in one budget cycle, I was able to acquire three major software products, and in the second budget cycle, I was able to get two additional products. These benefited the entire company because I used them to get things done faster, and in some cases, I was able to give the end-users an interface that allowed them to query data using standard SQL.

A little tip: Most software products cost more than just the retail price. There are often additional features as well as other costs such as annual software maintenance, so add about 25% of the retail price to your budget request. That way, if you need it, it's there; if you don't, you'll be perceived as frugal.

Be a Leader

Nothing hurts me more than hearing RPG programmers say their companies trained them in RPG IV and subprocedures, but they were never given the opportunity to use these new skills when they went back to their shops. Skills fade if you don't use them, so if you've learned RPG IV, CGI, JSP, or some other interesting new technology, try implementing it in your shop (if for no other reason, to make life a bit more interesting).

At Georgetown University, the University of Illinois, and I'm sure many other universities as well, you see this slogan posted around the campus: "Lead, Follow, or Get out of the Way." Well, now I'm saying that to you!

Bob Cozzi is a programmer/consultant, writer/author, and software developer. His popular RPG xTools add-on subprocedure library for RPG IV is fast becoming a standard with RPG developers. His book The Modern RPG Language has been the most widely used RPG programming book for more than a decade. He, along with others, speaks at and produces the highly popular RPG World conference for RPG programmers.

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