1 00:00:11,950 --> 00:00:15,070 Welcome to the next episode of the SAP Learning Insights 2 00:00:15,070 --> 00:00:17,470 Podcast. I am your host David Chaviano, 3 00:00:17,470 --> 00:00:19,430 together with Doctor Clemens Manor. 4 00:00:20,270 --> 00:00:22,070 Today we're going to be talking about ABAP. 5 00:00:23,070 --> 00:00:24,750 A few of you out there have probably heard of it. 6 00:00:25,270 --> 00:00:27,790 I'm sure I have. And what is it? 7 00:00:27,990 --> 00:00:29,990 What is it used for and how can I learn it? 8 00:00:30,470 --> 00:00:34,590 So before we go into it, we always have to welcome our 9 00:00:34,590 --> 00:00:36,880 guests. So welcome to the podcast, 10 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:38,840 Clemens. At the start of every podcast, 11 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:41,280 we want to get our heroes origin story. 12 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:44,120 Tell us a little bit about yourself, your professional 13 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:47,160 background, academic origins. How did you get started? 14 00:00:47,160 --> 00:00:48,920 SAP, Hi. Everyone. 15 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:55,280 Well, my story with ABAP starts in the 1990s when I studied 16 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:58,560 physics in Heidelberg. Most of you will know Heidelberg 17 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:03,080 is not far from Waldorf SA PS headquarters and at the time SAP 18 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:07,120 was growing a lot and desperately looking for new 19 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:12,240 employees and as real programmers, trained programmers 20 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:18,160 were scare on on the market. They took all kinds of academics 21 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:24,960 and many physicists were among those and saw many friends, 22 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:28,760 fellow students, university staff even leave Heidelberg 23 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:32,200 University and starting a career at SAP. 24 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:37,200 So a few years later, that was not the time when I actually 25 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:39,520 joined SAP. It was a bit a few years later 26 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:43,520 when I realized that there is a life outside of academics. 27 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:49,720 And so I started as developer at SAP working with ABAP our topic 28 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:51,480 today. OK, very cool. 29 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:54,960 And with your background in in physics, would you say that 30 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:59,240 maybe that mentality or the thought processes involved in 31 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:02,800 understanding the concepts of physics was well fitted to the 32 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:04,880 technology sector? Yes, I would think so. 33 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:09,600 It's all about solving problems and it's problem solving skills 34 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:14,320 that you learn most when you do scientific study, especially in 35 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:18,440 physics. And so this helped me a lot in 36 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:23,080 solving technology problems, solving software problems, OK. 37 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:27,360 So you started at SAP as an ABAP developer then or a general 38 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:30,040 developer or sort of what what language are you going in? 39 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:31,440 ABAP. It was ABAP. 40 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:37,360 Application development in SAP was mostly ABAP at the time. 41 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:42,080 There was a Java as a new alternative programming language 42 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:46,720 pouring in and fading out later, but most of the application 43 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:48,520 development at the time was ABAP. 44 00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:49,520 OK. All right. 45 00:02:49,640 --> 00:02:52,280 I got it. And at SAP approached you or you 46 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:55,320 approached SAP, I'm wondering how did you get introduced to 47 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:58,200 ABAP yourself? How did you learn it and then 48 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:00,080 get hired? So what was that process like? 49 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:02,840 It was the other way round. I got hired and then I learned 50 00:03:02,840 --> 00:03:03,720 ABAP. OK. 51 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:07,160 So they hired me and not me alone. 52 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:12,040 There were lots of new employees who and if the intention was 53 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:16,480 that we do ABAP programming, they sent us to a training 54 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:18,880 program where we learned it from scrap. 55 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:22,720 OK, understood. So you learned ABAP from scratch 56 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:24,320 at the beginning of your SAP career. 57 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:27,080 You've been working with ABAP ever since you've started at 58 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,920 SAP. So I think there is no better 59 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:32,080 qualified person to ask this very simple question. 60 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:35,160 What is ABAP? Yeah, Well, maybe I I should. 61 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:38,320 Before I answer that, I should mention that I'm not a 62 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:42,120 programmer anymore. Well, not in the literal sense. 63 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:49,360 In the training department, I teach ABBA to new employees, to 64 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:54,600 partners, to customers, to everyone who wants to learn ABBA 65 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:58,600 programming. I do that for almost 20 years 66 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:02,120 now. So that's my profession today. 67 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:07,840 So yes, I should be able to explain what other is, because 68 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:11,440 that's the first question in in our basic training. 69 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:14,880 Well, people don't ask it if if they come to the training, they 70 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:18,000 have a rough idea what it is. They know it is a programming 71 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,120 language. They know it is a programming 72 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:27,360 language that was invented at SAP for SA PS own application 73 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:35,040 programming and that it is used still by Sapa lot but also by 74 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:39,880 partners by customers to build add-ons or to build customer 75 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,480 specific applications on the SAP system. 76 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:44,880 OK. So it's something that's 77 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:49,240 exclusive to SAP and SA PS ecosystem. 78 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:53,280 How would you say it, it differs from other programming languages 79 00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:55,040 out there? Is it more difficult, more 80 00:04:55,040 --> 00:05:00,080 complex, more niche in terms of learning, applying it, that sort 81 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:02,200 of thing? Well, the main difference is the 82 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:07,040 platform. You only can program ABAP on SAP 83 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:11,240 ABAP platform. In the past, it was an ABAP 84 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:16,920 system, so you had to buy a license for an SAP product to do 85 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:20,080 ABAP programming. Nowadays we also have cloud 86 00:05:20,080 --> 00:05:25,200 solutions, most of all the ABAP environment in the SAP Business 87 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:30,080 Technology platform, where you can do ABAP programming, but yet 88 00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:34,560 you cannot just start doing ABAP programming locally on your 89 00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:36,840 computer. That's the main difference to 90 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:39,720 other programming languages. OK, understood. 91 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:42,280 What exactly is it used for? Could you help us with some 92 00:05:42,280 --> 00:05:47,080 examples on how ABAP is applied in the practical world? 93 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:49,240 Well, that also changed over the years. 94 00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:56,160 In the past, ABAP was used a lot to build reports that say 95 00:05:56,160 --> 00:06:00,440 programs with a screen where you select some data. 96 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:05,600 You enter, let's say a region or a country or a department, 97 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:08,880 anything like that. And you execute the report that 98 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:13,640 then you get a list of of data, like for example, your revenues 99 00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:19,400 in region distributed by country or a list of employees working 100 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:24,960 for a department with their annual salary, all, all kinds of 101 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:28,520 evaluation of data. Those were those reports. 102 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:31,440 They were built with the ABAP programming language. 103 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:35,800 Then ABAP was used a lot for, we called it transactions. 104 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:39,480 That's a bit more flexible dialogue programs where you 105 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:44,720 enter new data for a database, like for example in new sales 106 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:48,440 order or you create a new employee, things like that. 107 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:53,440 So the whole dialogue logic was also done in ABAP. 108 00:06:54,640 --> 00:07:00,160 Those are old passioned technologies and we do not well 109 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:03,440 you still can use them in on premise system. 110 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:05,960 That's a system we call when you where you buy the license and 111 00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:10,000 you install the SAP system on your own machine. 112 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:14,920 But in the cloud we don't do not use these old technologies 113 00:07:14,920 --> 00:07:17,440 anymore. We work with different 114 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:21,120 approaches with old data services for those who know 115 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:24,480 about those. And then the the front and the 116 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:27,680 user dialogue is done outside of the ABAP world. 117 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:33,360 ABAP is used to develop the back end, the service for user 118 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:37,720 dialogues but also for AP is that means not a user 119 00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:41,640 communicating with a computer, but a computer communicating 120 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:45,800 with a computer. So that's what we do in ABAP. 121 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,680 OK. And maybe just a question on the 122 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:53,600 origins of ABAP. I'm assuming it predated any 123 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:56,200 other language that can do the things that it could do. 124 00:07:56,200 --> 00:07:59,040 So that's sort of the reason why SAP had to come up with its own 125 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:01,600 language. But would that be the why ABAB 126 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:03,800 was created? There is no other languages out 127 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:06,400 there that that could basically do what what SAP was trying to 128 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:08,960 do at the time. Well, I wasn't around when they 129 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:12,400 decided to come up with their own programming language, but 130 00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:17,440 that's what I assume that the languages that were there did 131 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:20,400 not. None of those did perfectly fit 132 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:26,400 the requirements SAP, the founders of SAP, the people who 133 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:31,000 were there in the 1980s, had for a programming language to use, 134 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:35,440 so they came up with their own. OK, a both move. 135 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:40,039 So going into the day-to-day ABAP, it's changed quite a bit I 136 00:08:40,039 --> 00:08:44,280 guess with time as things have progressed, but still used, what 137 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:45,680 sort of people are still using it? 138 00:08:45,680 --> 00:08:50,000 Could you like name some of the titles of of people who still 139 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,760 use ABAP on the day-to-day and what they do with it? 140 00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:58,440 Well, the software developers, programmers, our support 141 00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:03,360 departments, they have to provide support for the code 142 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:05,920 that is written in ABAP. So what they have to understand 143 00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:09,640 to read the code, make corrections to the existing ABAP 144 00:09:09,640 --> 00:09:13,760 code. That's people inside SAP working 145 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:16,680 with ABAP. There are lots of people outside 146 00:09:16,680 --> 00:09:21,160 of SAP working with ABAP. There are partners who build 147 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:28,840 add-ons for SAP systems in ABAP which they then offer to SA PS 148 00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:33,040 customers, so providing functionality that's not part of 149 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:36,720 the SAP core. And there are customers using 150 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:42,320 ABAP to build their own applications, extending the SAP 151 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:47,000 software with logic, with functionality those customers 152 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:51,520 want to see there in addition. And they do their own, their 153 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:56,240 completely own programs as well. So in the past they did a lot of 154 00:09:56,240 --> 00:09:59,400 reports. Some customers still do, if 155 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:05,200 they're still working with the traditional SAP products and in 156 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:12,640 the new products they more and more do reports or a dialogue 157 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:16,320 programs with the new technologies I just mentioned. 158 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:19,480 OK. So a keyword new technologies 159 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:23,440 and one could infer that ALAP is being used less due to new 160 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:26,480 technological developments. So specifically from the 161 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:30,200 perspective of a new person who's approaching SAP and trying 162 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:34,200 to figure out what they want to do within the ecosystem, is it 163 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:37,280 worth it for a net new person joining the SP ecosystem, 164 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:39,680 specifically somebody maybe with a computer science background, 165 00:10:39,680 --> 00:10:43,440 somebody who's interested in being a developer, Is it worth a 166 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,000 a brand new developer going into this ecosystem to, to Start 167 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,800 learning with ABAP? Yes, I, I, I would think so, 168 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:52,880 being an ABAP trainer, I have to say that. 169 00:10:54,560 --> 00:10:59,440 But but apart from that, I still think ABAP is a very important 170 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:03,520 part of software development inside SAP. 171 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:10,640 Our flagship product S for HANA is on the ABAP stack, and most 172 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,840 of the application software is developed in the ABAP 173 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:16,480 programming language. So if you're going that 174 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:19,920 direction, ABAP is a must. OK. 175 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:22,920 And if you know ABAP, then you're the person who's who A, 176 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:26,960 for example, an implementation team is going to go to build an 177 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:30,720 extension or customize the application in some way that 178 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:33,600 fits a customer better, hopefully using those clean core 179 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:36,880 principles. Well, we have extension 180 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:40,720 techniques in place that do not require a developer. 181 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:44,760 There are different ways to extend an application that is 182 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:49,520 written in ABAP. There are key user extensibility 183 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:53,440 just dropping dropping keywords here, but there is the developer 184 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:58,000 extensibility as well. Some things can be achieved with 185 00:11:58,320 --> 00:12:03,480 the key user extensibility with INACT extensibility, but some 186 00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:05,680 things can't. And then the developer 187 00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:09,480 extensibility has to be used, and that's something that 188 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:10,920 involves another. Developer. 189 00:12:11,480 --> 00:12:15,600 OK, understood. So I imagine, and forgive my 190 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:19,360 ignorance here as I'm not a developer, I'm imagining sort of 191 00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:22,800 the most complex or the most complicated sort of 192 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:24,840 extensibility. Such scenario would probably 193 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:26,840 need the ABAP developer and the quote UN quote. 194 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:30,520 Simpler ones would not need it. Yes, you can put it like that. 195 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:33,200 OK, so I'm going to go a step further and say the ABAP 196 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:36,800 developer is a superhero and the Cape coming into a situation to 197 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:39,320 solve a problem that nobody else could probably solve, right? 198 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:43,000 I like that picture, all right. I like it very much. 199 00:12:43,640 --> 00:12:46,240 All right, so back to the like the beginner, like the beginner 200 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,000 who's looking at everything they could possibly learn or, or, or 201 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:51,920 role they could choose within the SAP ecosystem. 202 00:12:52,560 --> 00:12:56,120 Is there a concern about market saturation for this language? 203 00:12:56,120 --> 00:12:59,200 So I'm, I'm imagining it's been around for a while. 204 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:00,360 ABOP has been around for a while. 205 00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:03,440 A lot of people know it already. This is not necessarily 206 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:05,680 something that's going to be a differentiator to get your job. 207 00:13:05,680 --> 00:13:07,800 It's sort of maybe a prerequisite that everybody 208 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:09,320 already has. And then you just need to build 209 00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:12,120 up on that after you you've basically learned ABOP. 210 00:13:12,840 --> 00:13:14,760 Is that accurate? It's interesting. 211 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:19,440 I'm I'm asking myself the same question for many years now, 212 00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:23,720 doing ABAP trainings for 20 years, I have trained lots of 213 00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:28,200 people and together with my colleagues, it was in the 10s of 214 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:32,400 thousands, hundreds of thousands people, we trained in ABAP and I 215 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:37,520 sometimes wondered, is there still space out there for ABAP 216 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:39,960 developers? Is there still enough to do for 217 00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:43,760 ABAP developers? But I think yes, because there 218 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:49,240 is fluctuation that people going to retirement being replaced by 219 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:54,600 new hires who do their work and to need ABAP knowledge. 220 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:58,800 And on the other hand, ABAP is a language that evolves a lot. 221 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:02,840 I already mentioned things were completely different 20 years 222 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:06,040 ago when I started being an ABAP trainer. 223 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:11,960 We teach completely new things. ABAP has been reinvented several 224 00:14:11,960 --> 00:14:18,360 times and therefore people need to learn the new ways of ABAP 225 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:22,600 and come to our trainings. OK, got it. 226 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:28,520 But as I'm still surprised that we get so many people who start 227 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:32,880 with ABAP, not only young people coming from the university, but 228 00:14:32,880 --> 00:14:38,280 there are also more experienced people having experience with 229 00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:43,400 SAP who decided, well, I think I need to learn ABAP to understand 230 00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:47,000 it all better or I want to change, go to another direction 231 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:50,920 within our company. OK, so keywords start. 232 00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:54,480 How difficult is ABAP to learn? Is this something you could 233 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:56,520 learn as a first programming language? 234 00:14:56,520 --> 00:14:59,640 Or should a newbie start with something else like Python or or 235 00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:03,640 or something along those lines? If you have never learned any 236 00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:07,160 programming language, I think programming languages like 237 00:15:07,160 --> 00:15:12,920 Python or Java are easier to start with simply because you 238 00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:16,480 don't need the dedicated infrastructure, the dedicated 239 00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:19,400 platform to get going. OK. 240 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:22,920 It's not so much a question of the programming language, it's 241 00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:24,640 more like the the infrastructure. 242 00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:28,120 OK, understood. So you would assuming the 243 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:32,120 infrastructure was was there, that the level of difficulty 244 00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:35,720 would be equivalent to maybe Java, just purely focused on 245 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:38,520 the. Language difficult question. 246 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:42,240 This brings us brings us to another problem with the ABAP 247 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:45,840 programming language. I said ABAP is evolving or has 248 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:51,120 been evolved over the years and there came new concepts and new 249 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:56,640 ideas and new syntax elements. The problem with ABAP is that 250 00:15:56,680 --> 00:16:01,160 the old concepts did not go away, so they are still there. 251 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:06,720 So it's a huge variety of syntax, elements, statements, 252 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:11,480 expressions, which could be a bit overwhelming for someone who 253 00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:14,680 has never done any any software development. 254 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:19,120 Programming OK. Again, there is a kind of a 255 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,480 problem here, but if you have a good training class where you 256 00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:27,480 only get taught one of the concepts to do something and not 257 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:34,280 all 567 variations, then you could Start learning programming 258 00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:36,120 with ABAP. OK. 259 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:40,000 And in terms of learning strategies, you, you, you 260 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,760 mentioned that a language is always evolving and I, I find it 261 00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:46,120 to be quite intimidating, especially from a beginner's 262 00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:49,280 perspective because you're just trying to grasp get a hang on to 263 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:52,360 like the basic stuff already and the stuff you're holding on like 264 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:54,720 trying to learn is, is changing at the same time. 265 00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:59,040 What would you say are some some learning strategies for people 266 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:02,080 who are nude to learning programming languages in 267 00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:04,240 general? Just not necessarily ABAP, but 268 00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:07,440 just trying to get wrap their head around the basic principles 269 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:10,280 of programming. When we design our training 270 00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:17,200 classes, we at least try to keep that in mind and not to put too 271 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:21,240 many things into the beginning classes. 272 00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:25,680 So in the beginning classes, we try to focus on the essentials 273 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:32,480 and the most important things and then the old possibilities 274 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,720 and the latest possibilities. They come in later classes. 275 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:45,520 So starting ABAP, if you have some experience with programming 276 00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:49,600 in another programming language, then I recommend to go to 277 00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:57,320 learning.sap.com and look for the acquiring core ABAP skills 278 00:17:57,320 --> 00:18:00,400 learning journey. Acquiring core ABAP skills 279 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:05,600 learning journey, and that's the path to learn ABAP. 280 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:11,040 It leads up to certification. So you're certified ABAP 281 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:14,040 developer when you've done that learning journey. 282 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:19,080 And that's the way I recommend to start ABAP learning or come 283 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:23,680 to our training classes. OK, so prerequisite would 284 00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:26,280 definitely be some some experience with Java or Python 285 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:28,960 before so you understand the basic principles of computer 286 00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:30,520 science. Move on to AB up from there. 287 00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:33,560 You can do that for free learning.sap.com. 288 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:37,760 But you did mention there are sort of the infrastructure 289 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:39,760 requirements. So the practical exercises would 290 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:43,080 need to be on SAP Learning System Access I assume, right? 291 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:48,840 Yes, but that's with SAPBTP, the business technology platform. 292 00:18:49,120 --> 00:18:53,480 That's easier to come by than ever because on the business 293 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:58,920 technology platform you can simply create trial account and 294 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:03,000 in this trial account you can deploy an ABAP instance, connect 295 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:06,080 to the ABAP instance and start doing the ABAP development. 296 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:10,680 OK, understood. And for everybody that's maybe a 297 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:12,880 bit overwhelmed by all this, we'll try to get this all into 298 00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:14,480 the show notes so you know where to go. 299 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:18,320 So you have a nice list of URLs to go to. 300 00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:21,600 And in terms of, again, going to perspective of somebody who's 301 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:25,800 making the decision to learn ABAP, what would you say is the 302 00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:29,400 outlook for the language? Do you see any implications for 303 00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:33,480 it, good or not so good with the emergence of AI or large 304 00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:36,680 language models? Well, the outlook, when I 305 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:41,880 started doing ABAP, there were people who seriously asked me, 306 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:44,440 why do you start doing ABAP programming? 307 00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:49,840 ABAP will be replaced by Java and in in the near future or in 308 00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:53,720 a few years, no one at SAP will do any ABAP programming 309 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:55,160 anywhere. ABAP is dead. 310 00:19:55,800 --> 00:20:00,680 It was a slogan that's well over 20 years ago. 311 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:06,320 That was more than 20 years ago that people told me ABAP is dead 312 00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:10,760 or is going to die. And I heard that ever since it 313 00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:13,760 came in waves and look where we are. 314 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:19,800 ABAP is still alive and ABAP is used in many SAP products and it 315 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:25,320 has its place and I think ABAP will be around for many, many 316 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:27,920 years. All right, so have No Fear when 317 00:20:27,920 --> 00:20:30,640 new people out there, you Start learning ABAP there, there's 318 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:33,120 going to be work for you at the other end of your learning 319 00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:35,240 journey. Yeah, absolutely not. 320 00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:37,520 Don't believe the people who say ABAP is dead. 321 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,400 All right, so far we've gotten quite a good education on what 322 00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:44,600 ABAP's all about, where it came from, how long it's been around. 323 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:48,320 I I want to maybe pick your brain for some final words of 324 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:51,680 wisdom for our listeners, specifically the ones who are 325 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:54,720 either starting or maybe in the middle of their learning journey 326 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:58,840 on ABAP, if you could give them some words of encouragement or 327 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,560 share some of your wisdom. Oh, that's a difficult question. 328 00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:07,760 I think ABAP is cool. I'm still fascinated by the 329 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:13,320 concepts that are in ABAP. I'm fascinated by its stability 330 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:19,000 and by the way it is evolved further. 331 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:24,080 People are now working on AI integration into the ABAP 332 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:29,000 development so that you can use artificial intelligence to do 333 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:33,640 the tedious, tiresome parts of the programming. 334 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:39,400 So you can focus on the concept, on the design and actually 335 00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:43,480 typing the code, writing down the code, artificial 336 00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:47,600 intelligence, that's for you. That's a very fascinating thing 337 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:51,160 and I'm looking forward to see more of that happening. 338 00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:54,240 OK, So AI is definitely going to be a friend and assistant for 339 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:57,360 everybody who's learning and applying up, up and don't 340 00:21:57,360 --> 00:22:02,400 hesitate to embrace it. All right, very cool and hope we 341 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:04,320 stay in contact, claimants. And maybe we had to do a follow 342 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:08,800 up episode when we see some of those advancements arise in the 343 00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:12,400 horizon as those developments approach us in the timeline. 344 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:16,240 Appreciate your time claimants and sharing your wisdom and your 345 00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:18,080 knowledge and all your experience. 346 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:21,160 Thanks for being on the show. Thanks for having me. 347 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:22,840 And thanks to everybody for listening. 348 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:24,080 Bye and goodbye.