RPG

IBM's database development language or "Report Program Generator", the use of the full name is discouraged since the remit of the language has grown immensely since it was first conceived and is now a full programming language with emphasis on business applications. Best known as the main application development language behind the AS/400.

The main reason RPG lives on in the modern world is how well it is integrated into some IBM operating systems, particularly System i, but also that combined with available RAD tools it is a considerably more productive and less complex environment than the C++/Java + SQL + Application frameworks environments most people put forward as modern replacements. For OS/2 programming it is mostly dead however.

A list of OS/2 implementations of RPG

• Baby/38 - Commercial - Discontinued.
• Code/400 - Commercial - Discontinued
• RPG II Application Platform - Commercial - Discontinued
• VisualAge for RPG - Commercial - Discontinued

Foreign libraries with RPG bindings

• LibcURL - Internet URL (WWW, FTP, etc) access - Open Source - Current.

RPG related utilities

• Visual Tools/400 - Commercial - Discontinued

Workframes and or IDE's

• IBM WorkFrame/2 - Supports Code/400 and older DOS tools - Commercial - Discontinued.

A list of DOS implementations of RPG

• Baby/36 - Commercial - Discontinued.
• Baby/400 - Commercial - Discontinued.
• IBM DOS RPG II - Commercial - Discontinued.
• Lattice RPG II - Commercial - Discontinued.
• Lattice RPG 400D - Commercial - Discontinued.
• Software West RPG II - Commercial - Discontinued.
• Software West RPG III - Commercial - Discontinued.

DOS RPG utilities

• Lattice CodePRobe - Commercial - Discontinued.
• Lattice DFE/DFU - Commercial - Discontinued.

A list of RPG implementations and tools that run under WinOS/2

• Lattice RPG 400W - Commercial - Discontinued.

RPG related utilities

• Visual Tools/400 - Commercial - Discontinued.

Links & publications

• RPG logic flow
• Brian Kelly: RPG: A Great Language with a Greater History
• Jim Staton: Being a Better RPG Programmer - 2012
• Report Program Generator (RPG) Programming Reference Manual - From Unisys

Books

• Robert Cozzi: The Modern RPG IV Language 4th edition - 2006 - MC Press - ISBN 1583470646
• Robert Cozzi: Introduction to RPG - 1997 - MC Press - ISBN 1883884462
• Robert Cozzi: The Modern RPG Language: With Structured Programming - 1996 - MC Press - ISBN 0962182508

Mailing lists & forums

• RPG400-l - Dedicated to RPG on the System i, but amenable to answering other RPG related quaetions.

Tutorials and other learning material

• Enskill online RPG tutorials

RPG history

RPG was originally developed in 1959 as the Report Program Generator and was then a utility that replaced some of the punched card processing on the IBM 1401, RPG II was introduced for the IBM System/3 in the mid/late 1960s and had by that time started to resemble a programming language more. RPG IV was introduced on OS/2 and AS/400 in 1995