Overall the toolbox is VERY important for as400 access and generally well
developed.
Using toolbox for portable applications limits you primarily to the JDBC
driver that is common across all platforms.
You can easily do all data access and call programs, get result sets etc
using the JDBC driver and maintain portable client apps. We even run CL
programs, as400 commands etc thru the stored procedure interface just by
"scripting".
Some other services are very useful if you aren't focused on portability.
Some other services have very few scenarios where they are appropriate
given better alternatives in the toolbox and elsewhere.
Some features that IBM spent time developing almost appear to have been
done without reference to either Java or VisualAge capabilities that
already existed....
Jim Mason
