Re: Why i??? NEED YOUR INPUT

So you get instant deployment of your application, but without all the CSS,

Javascript, HTML, server side/client side stuff that complicates web
programming.

And how well does that work when you are talking about an application that
has thousands of screens? How well does deployment work then? Are the
files big like the Flex .swf approach?

Even though we have much more bandwidth than 5 years ago, I think Microsoft
is shooting themselves in the foot by having compiled home grown objects
downloaded to the browser for every screen. They could have made a much
thinner and better performing veneer by only passing down a screen
definition to a render engine and keep all of the compiled programs on the
server so you never have to wonder if everybody is operating on the same
version of code.

That's not to say you couldn't develop a Sliverlight app that all it does is
interprets a screen definition from the server and displays it, but at that
point you may as well be doing something like ExtJS that works on all
platforms and browsers. Note I haven't done any Silverlight dev, so feel
free to enlighten me if what I am stating is not the case.

The first vendor to figure out the right mix of thin veneer client with a
simple server side programming environment will win this 10+ year battle
that has been going on in the browser app space. RPG+DB2+IBMi is so
incredibly well suited for this EXCEPT for the lack of the thin veneer. The
traditional 5250 programming environment with stateful jobs is incredibly
efficient for man hours consumed - again, we just lack a UI. I am hoping to
address that with RPGUI (http://mowyourlawn.com/rpgui.html)

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
http://mowyourlawn.com/blog/


On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 1:18 PM, Steve Richter <stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 1:31 PM, Aaron Bartell <aaronbartell@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

You have to open source the system for it to grow and prosper. The

OS,ILE,

and RPG. ( DB2 is not needed if the code which couples the database to

the

OS is published. )

Open source and open spec can both give life and destroy life. Look at

how

long it has taken HTML5 to get legs and take off because of all the cooks

in

the kitchen. Look at the results of Sun with all of it's open source

(data

bases, languages, and operating systems). By not being open source you

can

make things happen a lot faster IMO, because many times that means you
control more ends of the spectrum and can make things more integrated.

In

the end it is more an issue of personality than open source that ails the
IBMi/RPG community. Though we are definitely making tracks, though it is
still no where near other communities.

But the personality comes from the open source base. More than a few
people would try IBM i kernel development if not simply to kick the
tires and the curiousity factor. From that you get community and
personality.

Using Silverlight for user interfacing applications is a bit like

VisualAge

for RPG - always behind and never quite works like the true server
language.

I guarantee anyone who gives Silverlight a few weeks of effort will
find the time well spent. With XAML you are able to spin up a user
interface in the time it takes to write psuedo code. Your client code,
written in C# or VB, runs in the browser but interacts with the server
thru web service calls. So you get instant deployment of your
application, but without all the CSS, Javascript, HTML, server
side/client side stuff that complicates web programming. For business
apps, where you can control that your users are on the right level of
Mac or Windows OS, SL is arguably the present and future way to write
applications. IBM i can be the server side of the web service calls of
a SL client just as well as IIS.
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