Re: CODE/400

** Reply to note from DAsmussen <DAsmussen@aol.com> Sun, 8 Mar 1998 23:31:15 EST

> You're just _NOT_ getting it, are you?  I at first thought that you were 
> taking my turn at "devil's advocate", then that you were just "jerking my 
> chain" -- but you really don't understand the issue, do you?  That's sad. 
> I've done everything short of writing it in crayon, so let's see if I can 
>take 
> the simplification one level further down... 
>  
> CODE/400=Good, People that can afford it=Many.  SEU=OK, People that can 
>afford 
> it=ALL w/ADTS.  People that can afford CODE/400=don't care about development 
> language _or_ AS/400 platform.  People that can't, say SEU=OK.

I am sorry, Dean. 

I get the idea now. 

You don't know what Code/400 is, do you? I have been wondering what was so
hard to understand! But I guess the problem was in the very basics of the
discussion. I apologize for not clarifying sooner.

Code/400 is a development tool for writing RPG code on AS/400s. It also
has a visual development tool for generating PC based applications using
RPG. So you see, it is a tool for people who are using RPG.

That is why I have been getting so frustrated. I couldn't understand whey
you keep up with the Visual Basic stuff. After all, the tool is for people
who want to generate RPG, so there is obviously no reason in the world to
be comparing it to a Basic application generator!

So, perhaps clarifying the tool will make this clearer. Don't try to put
this in a frame of someone trying to decide what language or platform to
do the work in. 

Think of this tool for shops that have already decided to write AS/400
based RPG that might want to occasionally supplement their development
with a PC app and they don't really want to add a new language to their
skill list.

So, if you have a shop where you are writing RPG and you are using SEU,
then Code/400 is a tool that can increase productivity. 

It doesn't make sense to advertise this against VB, since they are
intended for different market segments. To compete against VB, IBM makes
VisualAge for Basic. 

When I read your post telling me that I was "harping AS/400 development,
AS/400 development, AS/400 development..." for a moment I was stunned,
then it occured to me that you didn't know what the heck Code/400 was for. 

See, VA RPG (one of the components of ADTS/CS) does allow you to build GUI
based PC apps using the RPG language. However, Code/400 is for working
with RPG on the AS/400. As you can guess, buying Visual Basic won't help
you edit very many RPG members on the 400! That's why I couldn't figure
out what kind of tangent you were wandering off on! 

Code/400s primary purpose is not a PC or GUI application developer, for
that there is VisualAge for Java, VisualAge Generator, VisualAge for
Basic, etc. Code/400 is for editing RPG code using a PC based editor that
allows many extra features by taking advantage of the PC environment for
developing.

Does that make more sense? Can you see why, in this case, the cost
justification should be how much development time it saves for RPG
programmers?



Chris Rehm
Mr.AS400@ibm.net

How often can you afford to be unexpectedly out of business?
Get an AS/400.
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