Customer Reviews

Programming in RPG IV, Fourth Edition

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

 

 

I have been in the IT industry about 10 years working with RPG and have lost touch with what it is like to learn RPG from the ground up. I had a business need to get three individuals up to speed fast with RPG and one of my main concerns is that they learn the latest techniques vs. old coding styles. This book was exactly what I was looking for because in the 4th edition it was gone through from start to finish and implemented things like free format, the newest BIFs/OPCodes, and even introduced WDSC!

Another scenario I think this book would be great for is teaching programmers of other languages about RPG. It is nothing new to anybody that RPG programmers are getting hard to find, so an approach that can save your investment in you iSeries is train individuals who already know other languages to learn to use RPG - this book would be a perfect fit for that.

I would definitely recommend this book be used for the purposes I described above!

I'm an RPG developer who is also a professional educator on RPG IV and related topics. Most of my time is spent teaching experienced RPG developers about new or more advanced features of the language. But occasionally, I am asked to either teach RPG newbies or at least recommend a way to learn RPG to those who don't know the language at all.

Until I saw this book, I was hard pressed to find what I felt was a good, solid textbook that covers today's version of the RPG IV language from the ground up. This 4th edition is not just the same book that has been around for years with a few updates here and there. It has been rewritten to teach the beginner today's RPG IV language using features that nearly all my clients want their developers to use, such as free format logic, prototypes for calling programs as well as subprocedures and APIs, and modular coding techniques using Service Programs.

The older style of RPG coding that is still (sadly) seen to some degree in many shops is included, but it is relegated to secondary status, as I believe it should be. The way this book teaches the new, current techniques first and foremost will help these new RPG programmers get off to the right start so that they can experience the true power of today's RPG language. Maybe some of the new RPGers who learn RPG this way will help a few dyed-in-wool old-style RPGers to see the light.

I recommend this book and I will use it alongside my own course materials when teaching newcomers to the RPG language. Thanks, Jim and Bryan, for a great textbook resource.

The textbook "Programming in RPG IV, 4th Edition" is now being published by a new publisher, MC Press, under the new ISBN #978-1-58347-355-9. The cover has changed, but other than that, the book is identical to the 29th Street Press edition. The MC Press book is available now on Amazon.com.

This book is terrible.

It does not explain concepts very well as well as being very poorly edited. The examples it gives are worthless in aiding understanding of the material and much of the source code that comes with it is incorrect and/or full of errors.

It teaches RPGLE coding almost exclusively in Free-Format despite 99% of RPG code in the "real world" being fixed format. Plus it has no use in my work place as it is a poor reference manual.

Book is so bad that my professor stop using it half way through the 1st term of a 4 term RPG Programming series.

The text is very poor. It does not explain concepts clearly, and is horrible in teaching actual RPG code. It does not show examples of how programming problems can be solved, and the exercises do not reflect the material in the chapters. Nor do the chapters support the ending exercises with good code examples. This is the most unprofessionally written text book on programming I have ever read.