RE: Opinions please: GUI vs. 5250

For heads down data entry you cannot beat text screen.  GUI is great when
you have to lookup lots of detail such as inventory status, a/r status,
shipping/billing address all during an order entry session.  GUI can make it
easier for the user but a properly designed block mode text screen can also
work very well.  Text mode is easier to support, program and maintain.  GUI
has problems with distribution of updates to the program.  Using a net
station, or thin client can help a great deal.  

TWINAX or TWISTED PAIR via Balun's is very cheap and easy to deploy.  5250
terminals just work and work.  Very little support necessary for the
hardware and very little to go wrong.

Net stations are more flexible and great if you need to see any type of
graphics.  They do require a LOT of bandwidth from your network.

PC are very flexible and give lots of power to the end user, thus making
them very expensive to maintain.  User productivity can go down do to doing
none business related task on the PC.  By moving the applications to the PC
you can save on network bandwidth.  This makes it harder to deploy program
updates.

I think client/server is the way to go.  You can do this via all three
presentation methods.  Just because your green screen is running on your
server does not mean you can't run it C/S.  We are currently trying to
separate our presentation layer from our business logic and breaking up our
green screen applications into client/server modules.  Once that is done,
you can development your GUI presentation layer to run on either a PC or
Thin Client.  We are also 


Christopher K. Bipes    mailto:ChrisB@Cross-Check.com
Sr. Programmer/Analyst  mailto:Chris_Bipes@Yahoo.com
CrossCheck, Inc.        http://www.cross-check.com
6119 State Farm Drive   Phone: 707 586-0551 x 1102
Rohnert Park CA  94928  Fax: 707 586-1884

If consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, only geniuses work here.
Karen Herbelin - Readers Digest 3/2000

-----Original Message-----
From: Urbanek, Marty [mailto:Marty_Urbanek@stercomm.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2000 9:34 AM
To: 'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'
Subject: Opinions please: GUI vs. 5250


What do you think about GUI (client/server, thick or thin client) interfaces
to AS/400 (iSeries!) business applications versus traditional 5250 "green
screen"? Which do you prefer and why? From the user perspective? From the
support perspective? What is your reaction to "hybrid" applications which
use green screen for some functions and GUI for others? All opinions
appreciated. Thanks!
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