Re: Why NOT the 400?

Rick Rayburn wrote:
> 
> Why NOT?
> 
> I don't understand. Everybody in - and out of - our industry know the 400 is
> the very best-of-breed choice for management of your back office.
. . .
> So,why is that so hard to market?


Why not?

Easy answer.

Because Microsloth (actually, I'd prefer to call it a name involving a
Yiddish term for the male anatomy, and suggesting that said anatomy is
undersized) has the world conditioned to think of text-based user
interfaces in general (and terminal-based ones in particular) as
obsolete and cumbersome, just as they have the world convinced that
Windoze is a better GUI than Macintosh (when in fact, it's highly
questionable whether Windoze is even a better GUI than the Amiga, let
alone Macintosh, X, GEM, or GEOS).

Because IBM has bought into that whole line of bovine scat, with certain
system parameters not settable from a terminal, and certain data types
inaccessible from DDS. Because IBM has a self-destructive habit of
trying to force users to waste money and disk space (not to mention
bandwidth) on Client Access.

Because IBM has steadfastly continued to support and promote RPG, while
throwing out BASIC, FORTRAN and PL/I. Of all programming languages, RPG
is probably the only one generally regarded (with good reason) as
stodgier and more stone-age than COBOL. Because EBCDIC and SNA
communication have an IBM mainframe connection, giving them a (totally
undeserved) reputation for being difficult to deal with, and giving
computers that use them a (once again, totally undeserved) reputation
for being big, bulky, noisy beasts requiring a dedicated system operator.

Because you can't simply pick up any off-the-shelf printer, whether
Postscript laser, PCL laser, inkjet, Microdry, or impact, and plug it
into the back of an AS/400. Because you can't simply go down to the
nearest Fry's and buy a new hard drive, tape drive, CD-ROM drive, or ZIP
drive for your AS/400.

Because very few universities bring up programmers on IBM mainframe or
midrange systems. Those that still train programming students on
anything bigger than large Windoze or UNIX boxes or Macintoshes
generally use systems from other vendors. Any other vendors. Thus, SNA,
EBCDIC, and other AS/400 essentials are completely foreign to most young 
programmers.

-- 
James H. H. Lampert
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