Re: Opinions please: GUI vs. 5250

Marty,

Bored?  Looking to start a war? ;-)

Actually, I'm in the hybrid camp.  Like all tools, they all work well
when used appropriately.

For example, I work with a manufacturing company that shrink wraps their
product as the last stage of production.  As the product reaches the
bagging station, the operator wands the bar code and this in turn is
used to obtain information for a shipping label to be printed.

It could be a nice little VB window, but then we would have a PC out on
the plant floor.  IMHO, the old 3180 that they use now is more durable,
less prone to failure and cheap to replace.  So this stays 5250.

Now I didn't write this, but it was a bid proposal to a concert hall
ticketing agent.  I envisioned a screen display of the seating
arrangement with the sold seats in one color and the available seats in
a different color.  When the customer asked for 4 seats, best in the
house, the computer would pick 4 seats and have them blink.  The agent
could show the customer which seats were picked and ask if that would
work for them.  Definitely a good candidate for GUI.

My propensity is to stay 5250 unless the value of a GUI justifies the
cost.
The enhanced 5250 data stream let's you do some things to make your
screens look a little snappier like radio buttons and slide bars
depending upon OS level.
----------------------------------------------------
"Urbanek, Marty" wrote:
> 
> 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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