Java for RPG Programmers: 3rd edition [Paperback]

Phil Coulthard (Author), George Farr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2006

As the roles of Java in business and e-business applications continue to grow, all iSeries and AS/400 IT professionals have a choice to make—learn Java or get left behind. Programmers, development managers, and architects who want to stay on the cutting edge of their careers must learn how to use and understand Java. IBM is not abandoning RPG, but more and more Java is finding a role in leading-edge applications. For an RPG programmer, learning Java can be daunting, but with the right help, it's a skill that can be mastered. This completely revised and updated edition offers that help by gently yet comprehensively teaching the Java language and core Java-supplied functionality.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Phil Coulthard is the lead architect for AS/400 application development projects at the IBM Toronto laboratory. He has worked as a developer, team leader, manager, and general advocate of AS/400 application developments since 1986. He lives in Toronto, Ontario. George Farr is a tester, developer, team leader, technical planner, and development manager for AS/400 compiler. He is the coauthor AS/400 COBOL Programmers and Java for S/390. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Mc Press; 3rd edition (December 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931182299
• ISBN-13: 978-1931182294
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,434,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very different from RPG, April 30, 2007

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Java for RPG Programmers: 3rd edition (Paperback)

Many readers coming to this might like what is described about java. Very different from RPG. The biggest change is the intrinsic object oriented nature of java. If you use RPG 3, then this will certainly be the most distinctive part of the narrative. RPG 4 programmers will at least be familiar.

There are many neat features about java that you should note. Like the higher level data structures, Vector, HashSet, Hashtable etc. These have been thoroughly debugged, and can save you much time recoding. Another difference is a full widget system. RPG came of age when graphics meant character oriented tables. Speaking of characters, java comes with internationalisation. Whereas RPG shows its heritage from an ascii background.

Unsurprisingly, the book has an extensive section on connecting java to a database. Some readers will perk up at this. You can closely compare functionality with RPG. Here, the latter is probably still stronger. But the java designers at Sun have done a competent job with JDBC.