Is Python development applicable to commerce?

[Simon Brunning]

> From:	Peter Moore [SMTP:pmoore at mjs400.co.uk]
> Yeah, one day the Python might make a fair number of people a decent
> living.
> 
> If this isn't the case let me know a few good reasons why and I'll skulk
> about to comp.sys.ibm.as400 and stay coding in RPG (which works just
> fine in an industrial setting but falls short in linguistic expression.)
> Who knows maybe the "random usenet poster" wasn't coding just for the
> fun of it and could use a decent IDE, I know I could.
 
Well, speaking as someone who codes RPG as my day-job, I must point out that
SEU* hardly counts as a 'decent IDE'. PythonWin and IDLE both piss all over
it. Compile & run without exiting the source? No way. Undo? What do you need
that for? Auto-completion? Auto-what? Source highlighting? If it was good
enough for my Grandfather...

Certainly RPG works, but programmer productivity is woeful. Well, mine
certainly is!

RPG's status is pretty much the same as that of COBOL, IMHO - there are
thousands of huge applications written in it, so it isn't going to go away,
and you'll always be able to get a job. But no-one is going to write
anything *new* using it.

Hence I'm learning Java**. Well, I *plan* to, but I'm enjoying Python too
much, and I don't seem to be getting around to it...

If anyone could get Python, (or JPython, or Jython, or whatever) working on
the '400, and tell me how, I would probably marry them. Not much of an
incentive, I'm afraid.

Cheers,
Simon Brunning
TriSystems Ltd.
sbrunning at trisystems.co.uk
* Source Entry Utility. If you think that the name sounds old-fashioned,
then you should see the interface!
** IBM is betting the farm on Java, so if you want to make use of your
existing '400 skills, it's the only way to go.




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