Paul has been lecturing at IBM Learning Services in Dublin for the last 18 years. He is the author of "Re-engineering RPG Legacy Applications" and "iSeries Navigator for Programmers" and he is one of the quoted industry experts in the IBM Redbook "Who knew you could do that with RPG IV?".
Paul has won numerous speaker awards at Common conferences.
As a child growing up in Ireland, Paul Tuohy dreamed of a career as a professional magician. Although his magic wand turned out to be RPG and he's pulling award-winning presentations instead of rabbits out of his hat, he stays true to the notion that believing in the sometimes unbelievable is the secret to the dynamic world of iSeries technology. That secret has helped him conjure numerous speaker of excellence awards for his RPG presentations at COMMON conferences over the years.
Known as an "industry expert" and a "passionate, realistic, gutsy" communicator, Tuohy won't need sleight of hand to entertain COMMON participants in Orlando this week with his potions for RPG success.
"I just try to keep people interested," Tuohy says of his well-known and animated talks on such topics as How Does RPG Talk to a Browser, RPG Skills for the New Millennium, ILE by Example. RPG IV for the RPG Programmer, RPG and the D Spec, and, of course, RPG 'Tricks' and Techniques. Keeping interest high "usually entails some humor, or what passes for humor," he adds, "and trying to give practical examples or good metaphors that make it relative to the attendees." Audiences are not known to disappear during his spellbinding presentations.
Tuohy arrived at his position as a self-employed trainer and consultant based in Dublin via stints as a software programmer and analyst, as the IT manager for Kodak Ireland, and as the Technical Director of Precision Software. He is now the CEO of ComCon and also works with IBM to develop and teach courses in programming and application development.
His wizardry also extends to publishing. Tuohy wrote Re-Engineering RPG Legacy Applications as an alternative to other RPG IV books that concentrate on individual details. "I thought it would be easier to highlight the re-engineering process by taking a group of programs and showing how they are changed for each of the steps from conversion through to ILE."
RPG continues to fascinate him. "It is easy to apply for business requirements," he notes. "The changes to RPG with the introduction of RPG IV have been great fun. The integration of RPG with other languages through ILE opens possibilities for such things as sockets, CGI, etc."
Tuohy would like to dispel the "misconception" that RPG is outdated, that it has nothing to offer for future development, that RPG IV is difficult to learn, that RPG IV and ILE are the same thing, and that moving from RPG III to RPG IV is "Y2K all over again."
He sees "segregation and integration" in the cards for RPG. "We already have true and trusted business logic written in RPG. The challenge is to separate out that logic so it can be called from any interface," Tuohy explains. "RPG programmers do need to expand their horizons to SQL, HTML, and XML and get a good understanding of ILE and true modularization. But I still see RPG as being the key component for controlling an application -- regardless of the interface."
In addition to sharing these beliefs at COMMON, Tuohy has been a featured speaker at RPG and Beyond, RPG World, COMMON Europe, and user group conferences.
Admitting that he enjoys having a "captive" audience and speaking to groups, Tuohy says he particularly treasures the networking that comes from participating in such gatherings. "I learn a lot from people I meet at conferences, both speakers and attendees," he says. "It is really nice when someone tells me that something I said made a difference."
A programmer at heart, Tuohy says his biggest challenge as an industry spokesperson is trying to keep up-to-date in the field. "The system is now so diverse that it is difficult to get a grasp of all the options that are available," he explains. Although he acknowledges the responsibility of communicating with key decision makers who influence the future of programmers and shape strategic directions for the industry, Tuohy says he doesn't feel pressured in his role. "I express an opinion and my reasoning behind it, and people can agree or disagree." So far, he jokes, he hasn't had to saw anyone in half.
His goal for this week's COMMON conference is the same one he always packs in his bag of tricks. "At best, get people excited and enthusiastic about their work; at worst, they learn something new." Something new will face Tuohy in Orlando as he presents a non-technical closing session for the first time. He is dubbing it "Bring Your Life to Work" and promises that it will include a "magical" component.
What is Tuohy conjuring for his future? "I want to learn something new every day and to keep on talking and writing as long as people keep on listening and reading," he says.
"By the way," he adds, "I still want to be a professional magician when I grow up." There's apparently no hocus-pocus in that.