Re: Need some idea's, direction, etc.

> Michael wrote:
> Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 3:11 PM
> Subject: Re: Need some idea's, direction, etc.


> That's not necessarily an advantage.

Michael -

You must have never had to make major application program changes to large
software systems simply because the operating system or the DBMS was
being upgraded.

On PC's:
DOS                -> Windows 3.0
Windows          -> Windows 3.1
Windows 3.1    -> Windows 95
Windows 95     -> Windows 98
Windows 98     -> Windows 2000
Windows 2000 -> Windows XP

Or on the mainframe having to make application program changes and rewrite
the JCL simply because you were converting, for example, from DOS to
VM or MVS.

Or on Unix systems having to make major application program changes because
of changes in the version of Unix being used.

And the list goes on...

IBM's philosophy when the S/38 was introduced was simple.
To paraphrase:  "We will preserve your investment in software".
I heard this mantra again and again from IBM sales reps.

And as such, most of the code written on the System/3, System/32, System/34,
System/36, and all code written under all versions of CPF on the S/38 and
OS/400 on AS/400 and iSeries will run on the new box.

I think that this is simply amazing.  There is NO other hardware/OS
platform in the world that can make this claim and deliver.

Of course, if what you have is old unstructured RPGII indicator-riddled
code,
then I can understand your statement - one of my first programming jobs was
maintaining System/34 RPGII MAPICS code on a System/38 - (Shudder).
I used to dream of indicators chasing me in my nightmares!

Steve Landess
Austin, Texas
(512) 423-0935