RPG is a high-level, fully procedural programming language used by businesses to create commercial business applications on IBM’s leading minicomputer system, the AS400 or iSeries. Today several mission-critical business applications are written in RPG based on RPG IV because it provides an interactive programming environment to AS400 RPG Programmers. RPG was upgraded to RPG II in the 1960s, following the development of the IBM System/3. RPG5 is a free version of the ILE format from IBMi V5 RPG6 is a free version of the ILE format from IBM i V6. RPG 7 is a free and latest version of the RPG programming language and is widely used in various industries.
The Report Program Generator (or RPG) is a high-level programming language. It is one of the IBM new technologies, or you can say proprietary as400 programming module. The custom RPG was launched with various modules, and its version can be accessed only on as/400 system or IBM iSeries. However, most of its versions can only be accessed on the IBM AS/400 system or OS400 (operating system) based setup.
What Does Report Program Generator (RPG) Mean?
RPG has quite a long history. As discussed above, RPG language, which people generally call it, is a programming language used for business applications and IBM iSeries and Power Systems. Initially, RPG programming was developed as a report-writing tool in the 1960s, but later it evolved as a modern RPG and into a high-level as 400 programming language for IBM products.
RPG is a high-level fully procedural programming language used by businesses to create commercial business applications on IBM’s leading minicomputer system, the AS400 iSeries. RPG has gained wide acceptance and has evolved massively since its inception. Today several ERPs and mission-critical business applications, are written in RPG based on RPG IV because it is enabled to provide an interactive programming environment to AS400 RPG Programmers. With state-of-the-art security features and seamless integration with IoT and Watson AI; IBMi is the platform of choice for secure and data-heavy business applications. RPG has a very rich legacy and it is known to be one of the finest high-level programming languages. Let us share a glimpse into the journey of RPG from a report generator tool to an ILE compatible programming language.
In 1960’s, RPG was upgraded to RPG II following the development of the IBM System/3. One of the most noteworthy aspects was the fixed format programming offered by RPG II. This meant code was written in a fixed format in order to standardize the software creation process and generate the desired output.
RPG III: It was mainly developed for System38 and its following versions. RPG III is an enhanced version over RPG II and incorporated features to support new software development structures such as iterative loops and subroutines. Further, it also allowed programmers to code in with or without the logic cycle, using indicators or IF statements. The RPG III compiler lives on to this day in AS400 and iSeries as the RPG/400 compiler.
RPG/400
When IBM announced the launch of the AS/400 system, IBM changed the names of most of its software tools and compilers to identify the product with the AS/400, differentiating it from the System/38 or System/36 hardware platforms. Thus, the RPG/400 compiler package was included with the AS400 platform.
RPGIV/RPGLE: It was launched in 1994 and incorporated several features to make it competitive to meet modern software development requirements. RPGIV included many functional, performance, maintenance, and productivity benefits. Its ability to integrate multiple languages, free-format expressions and definition specifications provide many of the benefits of object-oriented languages.
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