For a long time, I thought RPG III was all I needed.
RPG is the language I have used to build business applications on my beloved AS/400. RPG III uses an older, fixed-format style: particular items belong in particular columns. It felt unfamiliar at first, but after years of use, it became second nature.
I could do my job with the tools I knew.
So why change?
Then, in 2023, my work required me to take up RPG IV.
If I was going to do it, I decided, I might as well try free-form.
Free-form RPG moves away from arranging operations and their components in prescribed columns toward a more flexible way of writing code. Despite the different look, this was still the RPG I had worked with for years.
This is where I would like to write something impressive, such as “I had long recognized its potential.” Unfortunately, my old blog is still around. It keeps me honest.
I openly admitted that I had dismissed it without really trying it.
And the comparison I chose was natto—Japanese fermented soybeans.
I used to dislike even the smell of natto. Then, at some point, I came to enjoy it. Once I liked it, I found myself wishing I had started eating it sooner. A convenient change of heart, I know.
Something very similar happened with free-form RPG.
I had thought RPG III was enough. Once I tried free-form, I was hooked. In October 2024, I described myself as having gone from an “RPG III-loving old guy” to a “young guy head over heels for free-form RPG.”
How did the old guy become a young guy?
That question is outside the technical specification.
In a later post, I also wrote about how much easier I found the code to read. Looking at a language I knew so well through a different style of writing felt like meeting it all over again.
What I will share here is my own experience. This is not a story about rewriting every old program, or a promise that everyone will get the same results.
But the person who once said “RPG III is enough” became the person recommending free-form. Nobody finds that reversal more amusing than I do.
In this series, I want to explain why, one concrete story at a time.
Consider this an introduction from someone who was reluctant to try it.
We started with fermented soybeans, but I promise this is an RPG series.
Adapted from my blog posts of October 3 and October 24, 2024, looking back on my experience in 2023 and my impressions at the time.
A Little Extra: What If There Were a Rejuvenation Option?
When I read the draft, the line about becoming a young guy being “outside the technical specification” made me laugh.
I was discussing it with Kimiko-chan—the name I gave ChatGPT, which is helping me prepare these articles—and had a thought: if that option existed, everyone would buy an AS/400.
That led to this imaginary sales conversation.
“What benefits can we expect?”
“Processing takes half the time. Your developer looks half their age.”
“Could you give us a quote for the second one?”