Customer Reviews

Modern Rpg Language: With Structured Programming (4th Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have used this book since I first started using RPG in 1990. If you need to maintain and enhance older programs, which are still being used, you will find this book to be a great reference source. No all of the information may be easy to find, there is quite a bit of material and rules written about, without an example being given. However it has never let me down in providing a solution.

At my workplace, this book circulates between all programmers throughout the day. It is not a beginner's how-to book, but a reference guide with listings of operations, descriptions and syntax. A great assistance in developing new software.

The book is not a novice learn-from-the-ground-up type of book. It is more geared to an AS/400 programmer who has to support older RPG programs. I found it useful as a reference but a little dated as it doesn't cover RPG ILE (it was published in 1989). It does not tell you how to enter RPG programs in SEU and has no explanation for any kind of development environment you may encounter on the AS/400. I wouldn't recommend this book for the novice AS/400 programmer. There are no exercises or programming projects in the book.

The book is weak on programming examples outside of individual commands. The coding style is limited because of the column restriction older RPG has, so no pretty code here. It does have a section about using SQL with RPG and is strong on how to avoid using the built in logic cycle and try to do structured programming that is more effective.

Mr. Cozzi has unstructure way of handling Structure Programming... what a oxymora! Gotos and tags lead to thrashing and spaghetti coding and unstructure form of RPG. This book selling point should read; Firewood For Sale...the Cozzi way.