In article <[log in to unmask]>,
Jim Kramer <[log in to unmask]> writes
><humor?>
>
>I've heard that RPG stands for "read, punch and grunt".  Does anyone know if
>that's true?
>
></humor?>

I thought it was short for RePuGnant :-)

Where I sit, I look out on the Abbey Mill (hence Mill Street), and it's
got a big old waterwheel turning in the currents of the Avon.

RPG always reminds me of a big old waterwheel; if you are going where it
is going, there are few things better, and it carries you along without
you hardly having to do anything. So, as its name implies, it's great
for reports. And I never, ever, found an easier way to make multiple
serial file match/updates.

But once you get ambitious, and start introducing those E statements,
it's like trying to stop, slow down, or even reverse that wheel with a
long bendy pole. Suddenly, the Appendix in the manual where it describes
the processing cycle, the one you thought you'd never have to read,
becomes your constant companion.

You even begin to long for the still backwaters of COBOL again... :-)
--
Roy Brown               Phone : (01684) 291710     Fax : (01684) 291712
Affirm Ltd              Email : [log in to unmask]
The Great Barn, Mill St 'Have nothing on your systems that you do not
TEWKESBURY GL20 5SB (UK) know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'