Re: VARPG Future?

Hi Chris,  certainly a very good question.
Lets first talk about the near future, we are in the midst of upgrading the
VARPG language level to the level of RPGIV V5R2, actually we are almost
finished with this work you will see these enhancements coming out soon. It
looks like we will also get a nicer way to access GUI attributes with a
qualified dotted name instead of using  setatr/getatr op codes or
built-ins.

You mentioned, wanting to get the UI to the web, you could do this by using
the JAVA generation capabilities of VARPG, this will allow you to run the
generated  application in a browser as an applet. This will work for
Intranet applications but the VARPG runtime has to be available in the
browser as well which potentially means longer download times in a slower
network. To eliminate the runtime download each time the application runs
in the browser  you could store the VARPG JAVA runtime at the browser
location, this would be similar to plugins you download into your browser
environment to add  functionality to it.

We are at the moment looking at a couple of options how we can evolve VARPG
into an environment that would allow to create web applications in a
similar fashion you today create client server application with VARPG.
There are a couple of interesting technologies evolving in the industry
that we are looking at.
One of the discussion points in our team,  is the need for a rich multi
window pixel driven user interface (desktop) or whether it is sufficient to
provide a browser based user interface with its limitations. Actually I
would like to get feedback on this topic from customers and if you have
some input get back to me directly with an email to this address:
weiss@ca.ibm.com

Our suggestion is to create thin VARPG applications, that have only the
user interface logic  on the client. Keep the business logic on the
iSeries. This would allow you to create a  web user interface using the
WebTools in WDT or WDSc and re-use the business logic on the iSeries. I
have provided a sample of this VARPG application architecture in the VARPG
Visual Programming Guide (Writing Thin Client Applications). A copy of this
sample can also be found  in the Redbook  "Who Knew You Could Do That With
RPGIV" SG24-5402-00.


Claus Weiss Visual AD tools, email: weiss@ca.ibm.com
Dept 522 IBM Canada Lab tie 969-3987 Phone(905)413-3987 FAX(905)413-4850
Greetings from Toronto
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