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Jon Jon Paris wrote:
The end user PURCHASER disagrees, the end users themselves do NOT always disagree. My wife currently has the choice of entering data via the web or the 5250 interface. She uses the 5250 interface exclusively. In heads down entry you simply cannot predict with certainty where your cursor will go on the web and you must switch from your entry form to the screen over and over. In addition you must often switch from the keyboard to the rodent and back. Neither of these are effective for best performance. On the 5250 if they need to look something up they hit F4, locate the correct value and hit enter. On the web it's a pull down, scroll around a while then click. Sure you CAN do that with the keyboard but you can only use the first letters of entries in the list for positioning you can't 'search' the list.I'm not a fan of GUI for GUI's sake. I think there is still a role for a character based interface but end-users disagree.
Graphical interfaces are fantastic for getting things OUT of the system. Query like logic, graphs, charts, pictures etc. are all wonderful on this side. It's not so bad for casual entry either especially when limited options exist as to what to do or limited fields to enter data in. But for those heavy data entry tasks the web still sucks more than my shop vac.Ask any application or tool producer if they can sell a 5250 version of their product - or if they are still investing in green screen apps. I don't think you'll find any. End users decided long ago that they wanted a graphical interface.
IF the application is S/36 and still work, great. Should lots of effort be put into maintaining those apps? Likely not. However in my Irish Took Box (it's a bucket-O-tools) I don't have just a hammer, I also have vice grips, screwdrivers, crescent wrenches, tape measure, a level, a punch, a tin snips, and likely several things I haven't seen in years. Each gets used where it fits best because not every problem is a nail. Simply abandoing the 5250 interface because it's not sexy does not make the application better. There is no harm in keeping that part of the application when it works better and is more efficient for the user (not to mention the machine.)Sure some existing customers still want 5250 apps, but they are in the minority and probably aren't upgrading hardware and still run S/36 code. So even if they had threaded 5250 apps (which I really doubt the utility of anyway) they wouldn't buy/write them anyway.
And one other thing, Just who the *&%$ decided it was more efficient for me to enter MMMMM instead of MI when I'm entering my address on a web page? I have lived in MI since the doctor first smacked me on the backside. I can enter MI and don't need a list of 50 states to pick from. Too bad Minnesota and Missouri and Mississippi we got MI you got something hard to remember. :-) Our friends to the north have far fewer than 50 provinces and I bet they get saddled with a drop down too. This is an example of something 'cool' (the drop-down list) being used when it simply is NOT more efficient for the user OR bandwidth to the browser. This is 'normal' web design think. Hey, how about we just enter the ZIP code and let the machine pull City and State from there! We did this 20 years ago on the green screen!!
- Larry
Jon Paris Partner400 www.Partner400.com www.RPGWorld.com
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