Java for RPG Programmers (Paperback)

by Phil Coulthard (Author), George Farr (Author) "Java is an object-oriented language..." (more)
Key Phrases: George Farr, Phil Coulthard, Application Server (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Java is here to stay. 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. If you are a programmer who wants to stay on the cutting edge of your career, you will have to learn Java, and you will have to use Java. If you are a development manager, you will need to understand Java and its promise. If you are an architect, it is even more important to know Java and know when and where to use it. Or not use it. 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 book offers that help. It gently yet comprehensively walks you through the Java language and core Java-supplied functionality. Best of all, you will learn Java by comparing it to RPG! You learned RPG. Leverage that investment and learn Java! --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author
George N. Farr is the technical development manager for RPG IV as well as VisualAge for RPG products. He has held the position of developer, team leader, and development manager, and has been an AS/400 planner and architect since 1985. He is a frequent speaker at AS/400 conferences and user groups worldwide and has written many industry magazine articles and books including ILE: A First Look and RPG IV by Example. He currently resides in Toronto, Canada.

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. An author of many industry magazine articles and a frequent speaker at AS/400 conferences, Phil currently resides in Aurora, Ontario. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Advice Press (July 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889671231
• ISBN-13: 978-1889671239
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,104,004 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Start for the RPG Programmer, December 2, 2000

By	Stephen R Crider (Duncannon, PA USA) - See all my reviews

I started with a book called Java 2 from Scratch and did a lot of scratching of my head. I think it'll be a good book for me eventually, but not right now. I needed something better to get my feet wet. A co-worker lent me his copy of Coulthard and Farr's book and I spent an evening with it. Afterwards I went to Amazon and ordered it.

If you are an RPG programmer (I'm from the ILE RPG IV side) and want to begin learning JAVA, this is the book to start with. It does a good job contrasting RPG with JAVA to as to give a decent reference point. No other book does that and I found it to be most helpful. When I finished the book, I felt a lot better about the language but I need to go further with something else (Ivor Horton's book is probably going to be the something else).

I thought the chapter on the Java Onion was really well done and very informative. The chapter on Threads was completly over my head. I'll return to that topic at some future point. The OO chapter was good but I found Jennifer Hamilton's Object Orientation for the AS/400 Programmer does a better job explaining these concepts. Over all these guys did a real fine job.

By the way, I had the privelege of attending their Java seminar at the Fall Common conference in Baltimore and they really made the seminar enjoyable. You should catch one of there presentations some time. They're a good team and keep your attention. They do a good job.

The one beef I have is they left me hanging on page 418 with the MsgBox class. They say it would be simple to add the line of code to your program to use the class. Maybe I'm being stupid, but it wasn't simple for me. They should have at least shown you how to use it because I still haven't figured it out. Phil or George, are you reading this? Maybe someone can e-mail be and let me know. Aside from that irritation, I really liked the book and would recommmend it to any RPG programmer looking to start learning JAVA. A word of caution, it's not the end all. It's a start but you will defintely need to move to something meatier as a next step.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended., November 27, 1998

By	Douglas Smith (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

My library has five books on Java, but this is the one I would have purchased first if it had been available earlier. The authors actually teach you two languages - ILE RPG and Java, bringing RPG III old hands like myself up to speed with the modular capabilities of ILE, then showing how those concepts are implemented in Java. The chapter on exception handing (aka error messaging) shows how closely Java matches what we have taken for granted for years (which really shows how advanced the original System/38 was!); the chapter on multi-threading explains a subject that is pretty foreign to most of us RPG folks.

The only weakness is a thin treatment of how to actually implement the Java environment, but visits to the annotated IBM websites (and Redbooks) will fill this gap. You should also plan on becoming familiar with the Integrated File System root "/" directory, which is where your Java classes will reside.

If your shop is upgrading to V4R2, the Java Virtual Machine and related Toolkits are free and included on the CDROM, but must be explicitly loaded. IBM is committed to making Java a success on the AS/400, and if you want to catch the wave, this book is your surfboard!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good first Java book for RPG II or RPG IV programmers, December 10, 1999

By	Gary R. Patterson (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book does what it was written to do: provide RPG programmers with an introduction to Java by comparing and contrasting language features with RPG.

After the reader is finished with this book, s/he should proceed to the Sun tutorial in order to gain a better understanding of the Java language.