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Article mentions "RPG" many times: "RPG back-end", "RPG developer". For those who wonder what it it (like me), it is not a "Role Playing Game", it is IBM RPG la

by ash 10y ago

Article mentions "RPG" many times: "RPG back-end", "RPG developer". For those who wonder what it it (like me), it is not a "Role Playing Game", it is IBM RPG language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RPG

IshKebab 10y ago
"First appeared: 1959" and it looks it. I don't think the author is doing himself any favours by going on about such an archaic language!
- inimino 10y ago
  ...and that's exactly the attitude the author is pointing out.
  - IshKebab 10y ago
    No, the author is actually saying that that attitude is fine. His point is that you need to keep learning and doing things that are relevant today, not learn today's technology and then stick with it for the rest of your career. > I could tell you about all my accomplishments over three decades, such as replacing the use of a System/3 punch card system with the AS/400, writing a Cobol debugger, or…. Ah, I’m boring you. What you do care about are things I did in the last two years. RPG is only relevant today in the same way Cobol is.
    - inimino 10y ago
      The feeling your comment conveys is not "keep learning". The feeling is that by talking about "archaic" stuff, the author isn't "doing himself any favours", i.e. he makes himself sound old. That's actually his point. Someone who has seen a technology mature and develop over decades, seen the hype trains come and go, projects succeed and fail, might be a bit wiser than someone fresh out of Stanford. He might have some ideas about how to build maintainable systems after working on some that are older than most developers. If you don't see it, that's on you, not on the author for mentioning his particular "archaic" specialization.
  - OJFord 10y ago
    No, I agree with the parent commenter - but it's not that the language is old that's the problem. If the friend mentioned lost or left his current job, he'd probably (?) struggle to find another. It wouldn't be nasty ageism, it'd be "sorry all your experience is with a technology irrelevant to us; that we haven't even heard of". I say this going on the article alone - of course, for all I know the guy's an avid Ruby/Node/Elixir/whatever's-hot user for a range of awesome side-projects.
jgdx 10y ago
How the author failed to explain this abbreviation is beyond me. Who in their 50s doesn't know that you spell out important concepts and key terms, then shorten them in parentheses?
- PlugTunin 10y ago
  STFU.
  - sctb 10y ago
    Please comment civilly and substantively on HN or not at all.
- to3m 10y ago
  Maybe it didn't occur to him that people wouldn't know what it is. If you were writing an article about programming, would you explain what BASIC stands for?
  - Jaruzel 10y ago
    No of course not, everyone knows it stands for 'Badgers Are Super Intelligent Creatures'. :) (Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code... which now I type it out, obviously cheats. From here on, it shall be known as BAPSIC.)
larrik 10y ago
I spent my first 5 years out of college as an RPG developer, and even I was like "wait, can he mean THAT RPG?" I'm not even old, I started that job in 2005!
_h_o_d_ 10y ago
Although it is more fun to imagine he meant 'Rocket Propelled Grenade' back-end... (Etc)

by ash 10y ago

IshKebab 10y ago

"First appeared: 1959" and it looks it. I don't think the author is doing himself any favours by going on about such an archaic language!

inimino 10y ago
...and that's exactly the attitude the author is pointing out.
- IshKebab 10y ago
  No, the author is actually saying that that attitude is fine. His point is that you need to keep learning and doing things that are relevant today, not learn today's technology and then stick with it for the rest of your career. > I could tell you about all my accomplishments over three decades, such as replacing the use of a System/3 punch card system with the AS/400, writing a Cobol debugger, or…. Ah, I’m boring you. What you do care about are things I did in the last two years. RPG is only relevant today in the same way Cobol is.
  - inimino 10y ago
    The feeling your comment conveys is not "keep learning". The feeling is that by talking about "archaic" stuff, the author isn't "doing himself any favours", i.e. he makes himself sound old. That's actually his point. Someone who has seen a technology mature and develop over decades, seen the hype trains come and go, projects succeed and fail, might be a bit wiser than someone fresh out of Stanford. He might have some ideas about how to build maintainable systems after working on some that are older than most developers. If you don't see it, that's on you, not on the author for mentioning his particular "archaic" specialization.
- OJFord 10y ago
  No, I agree with the parent commenter - but it's not that the language is old that's the problem. If the friend mentioned lost or left his current job, he'd probably (?) struggle to find another. It wouldn't be nasty ageism, it'd be "sorry all your experience is with a technology irrelevant to us; that we haven't even heard of". I say this going on the article alone - of course, for all I know the guy's an avid Ruby/Node/Elixir/whatever's-hot user for a range of awesome side-projects.

jgdx 10y ago

How the author failed to explain this abbreviation is beyond me. Who in their 50s doesn't know that you spell out important concepts and key terms, then shorten them in parentheses?

PlugTunin 10y ago
STFU.
- sctb 10y ago
  Please comment civilly and substantively on HN or not at all.
to3m 10y ago
Maybe it didn't occur to him that people wouldn't know what it is. If you were writing an article about programming, would you explain what BASIC stands for?
- Jaruzel 10y ago
  No of course not, everyone knows it stands for 'Badgers Are Super Intelligent Creatures'. :) (Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code... which now I type it out, obviously cheats. From here on, it shall be known as BAPSIC.)

larrik 10y ago

I spent my first 5 years out of college as an RPG developer, and even I was like "wait, can he mean THAT RPG?" I'm not even old, I started that job in 2005!

_h_o_d_ 10y ago

Although it is more fun to imagine he meant 'Rocket Propelled Grenade' back-end... (Etc)