IBM RPG III

RPG III is a dialect of the RPG programming language that was first announced with the IBM System/38 in 1978. An upgraded version, RPG IV, was introduced in 1994. In 2001 RPG was again updated to remove a number of column restrictions, although it is still not competely "free form."

Unlike predecessors, RPG III uses external file descriptions, which means that disk files are built and RPG III programs are attached to them at compile time. Some other noteworthy changes from RPG II include:

1. The object cannot be replaced while active.

2. The object in a test library cannot be moved unilaterally into production. It must be compiled in the library associated with the external files (unlike System Support Program, Control Program Facility libraries contain data files.)

3. Display formats used by RPG III programs also describe the fields displayed and received by the RPG III WORKSTN file. Therefore, these specifications, called DDS, are also external in nature.

4. The display format object used by an RPG III program must be compiled before the RPG III program itself.