RE: DDS Screens To Java

Scott C. wrote:

>Does any one know of any Free/Open
>Source tools that will convert dds
>display file to java screens?

WebFacing is about as cheap as it's going to get FOR THE TOOL (yeah, that's
emphasis.)  In order to run those WebFaced applications you will need a
modern iSeries box with as much L2 cache as you can afford.  Also, WebSphere
Application Server (or Tomcat if you can figure out how to get the WebFaced
stuff to run there.)  Get ready to do some learning (time is money too.)

>Also, talking to a lot of the big vendors
>about paying for tools they mention that
>after they convert the Screens they go
>in and change the associated programs
>to use an API.  What is that API?
>
>Is it a system supplied API or one they create?

One they create.  You can do the same thing.  Get Joe Pluta's book or Brad
Stone's book and do some reading about the concept.  Fundamentally, you
convert the I/O into a program call.  The program you call will do the
actual I/O (or send/get the data to/from a server that you write that does
the I/O.)  Could be HTML or Java or ADO if you want.

RPG

instead of
c  exfmt getcust

you do
c  call  'exfmtAPI'
c  parm  getcustDataStructure
c  parm  errorFlag

EXFMTAPI then passes the I/O buffer to the Java bean/CGI program/??? that
interprets it and pops it out to the web browser.

I know it's silly to add this, but why does management think it's better to
spend no money on a tool/runtime/training for the applications that
(apparently) pay the bills?  Try as hard as you can to convince the Powers
That Be that paying for somebody else's expertise here is money well spent.
I 'learnt' for months before I became proficient with administering
Websphere, the HTTP server, the IFS security issues, the job logs, the log
files ('find me if you can!'), the goofy Java stack traces, searching
newsgroups/mailing lists for similar symptoms, writing test servlets/web
pages/cgi scripts - oh it's a brave new world you're peering into!

Scan the archives for Brad Stone's e-RPG, Joe Pluta's E-Deployment and
Nathan Andelin's Relational Data.  These are all complementary techniques
that you should look at before jumping into the e-pool.  There are even more
alternatives than these, but it's a good place to start looking.

  --buck

"Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered --
 either by themselves or by others." -Mark Twain