RE: Why IBMi research effort

James,

You really lament (resent?) the abandonment of 5250, don't you... Quite frankly, I'd blame the legacy of twinax and 5250 for holding this platform apart from the rest of the datacenter if I had to...

Yes, it absolutely is not Unix, though it does a really fine job of providing SEVERAL Unix-like environments, if that is at all appealing... This is but one (or two) of the very things that set our platform above the others... How about business languages that use decimal math libraries by default? Does that set our beloved RPG apart in a positive way? DB2 for IBM i is so tightly integrated into OS that one could not exist without the other. The embrace between OS and DB enabled admin-less (or at least minimal administration) operation of this platform for decades.

Reliability? Scalability? Virtualization? This platform has solid history across the board. So, why wouldn't we want to let non-IBMi technologists learn about the platform?

Good luck, Aaron!

-Eric DeLong

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James Lampert
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2012 2:09 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Why IBMi research effort

Aaron Bartell wrote:

I am putting together a form of research initiative that aims to quantify
*why* a non-IBMi tech person should consider or pursue IBMi.

Given that IBM has been steadily abandoning everything about the
platform that differentiates it from other platforms (little things like
5250 data stream and Twinax, as well as big things like native
record-level access, its close integration with RPG, and The RPG Cycle),
and also given as how the latest versions of the OS are always putting
up insulting, patronizing messages in the faces of those still using
terminals and emulators instead of iNav, are there any reasons left?

I mean, other than, "It's not a Unix-type system, and therefore isn't
constantly giving you enough rope to hang yourself (and helping you tie
the knot)" and "It's not WinDoze, and therefore doesn't have security
holes big enough to drive an aircraft carrier through"?

--
JHHL