OS/400 command set

> From: Dennis Lovelady
>
> Awright,  No more coffee for Joe.  :)

You know, Dennis, I was going to let this slide, and just take it in the
mildly humorous way it was intended, but then I thought about it again, and
I decided not to.  Here's why:

I constantly hear on this list - the MIDRANGE-L list! - about how the
iSeries doesn't measure up.  I hear comments that other languages are better
than RPG.  I hear that SQL is better than native DB2.  I hear that a
dedicated PC beats the crap out of the iSeries for web serving.  I hear that
iSeries security is suspect.

All of these arguments have, in narrow interpretations, some validity.  And
so I argue the broader view, to try to make sure the viewpoint is complete.
Because I believe in the platform.  Because I think it's the best possible
platform for my clients.  And since I fight these fights all the time, I
realize I'm not the most popular person, and that I'm seen as argumentative
and egocentric.  I've lived with that for years, because I thought - perhaps
wrongly - that I was just speaking up for a loyal group of OS/400 adherents
who simply didn't have the time or temperament to argue.

However, more and more often I feel like the lone voice, like I'm tilting
against some serious windmills.  And that these windmills are born not just
out of the attacks of competitive platforms, but from the apathy of our own
development community.

Because when I see statements such as the last one about Unix and man pages,
one so obviously and completely wrong, I expect a great hue and cry from the
people who have made a living on the box.  I expect to see arms raised, and
hear voices lifted to challenge these statements.

I expect us to give a damn.

And when that doesn't happen, when I'm the only voice, when it's just "Pluta
ranting again", I can see why the box is being replaced by lesser solutions.
Unless we have a certain passion for our machine, unless we can look a
client or an employer in the eye and say unflinchingly that this is the best
solution for their business, then we're going to lose more and more deals,
as someone with more to gain tells them differently, regardless of the
truth.

The iSeries is the best business application development platform on the
planet.  That's not to say it's without warts, or that it cannot be coupled
with other technologies to make it even better.  But for the typical
business application, the iSeries is the best choice as the central business
logic repository.

But without SOMEBODY standing up and shouting that the Great Emperor Unix
has no clothes (or that EJBs might not make sense in a legacy environment,
or that SQL isn't a great language for transactional updates), then the box
is doomed and we might as well all learn Python.

Okay.  NOW I'll lay off the coffee... <smile>

Joe