The status quo and the future...

Rick, you have many valid points.

RPG is not Python.  If IBM wants to port Python to the iSeries, fine.  But
what's the point of making RPG into something it's not?  That's why there
are multiple languages in the first place.  It's smart business to preserve
the status quo; that allows a well-defined upgrade path (for IBM and for
customers) and reduces exposure to the situations we encountered when both
the System/38 and AS/400 were announced.  But there may be some new concepts
in new languages that would be useful in RPG.  We don't want two homogenized
languages (we already have PL/I).

Those legacy applications...they're ours!  We don't want them to end up in
the street because some anonymous IBM marketing whiz decided RPG is bad.
And customers don't want their upgrade path to be blocked by a
labor-intensive software engineering effort; they want another painless
migration, like CISC-to-RISC.  This is what we expect from IBM; when IBM
focuses, it delivers.

The iSeries isn't a growth industry today because IBM coasted too long:
iSeries profits funded lots of other IBM ventures.   My opinion is that the
development of System/36 mode diverted a stupendous amount of AS/400
resources away from progress and towards compatibility.  While IBM fiddled
with SPCENV(*S36), Microsoft won the hearts of new programmers by grabbing
the Internet initiative; the low entrance cost of development systems didn't
hurt either.  But the new 250's offer hope on the low end...thanks, IBM!

IBM *wants* the iSeries to be a growth industry, and the target customer is
anybody with a room full of servers and network administrators.  When you
examine the iSeries announcements over the last few years, stand back or
you'll get clocked by the investment pendulum swinging to the hardware side,
with a special emphasis on server technology; we're just starting to see
some results on the software/application development tools side with V5R1
(suffering from a very low acceptance rate, according to Bob Cozzi).

Here's a provocative thought: the HP-Compaq merger might be based partially
on the realization that successfully moving the iSeries into the server
market would give IBM a monstrous competitive advantage over every other
server manufacturer by virtue of the coverage and overlap of the xSeries,
iSeries, and zSeries.

Look at how many users rely on SEU and SDA...both > 20 years old.  Don't
believe me: look at the surveys Bob Cozzi has conducted and you'll see how
slowly we as a group are moving.  After seeing SEU and SDA, no IT student on
the planet will believe the iSeries is the most advanced server in the
market.  The iSeries suffers from a perception problem and that's why there
are so many complaints about iSeries marketing.

LPAR has some usefulness across a wide spectrum of users but I admit to
being mystified with Linux, unless it's a "Me too" from IBM to the industry.
There is one possibility for using Linux productively and this is the best
strategic option for IBM: a new set of development tools running exclusively
in Linux on both the PC and iSeries platforms.

I don't agree with your belief that IBM executives answer to the
shareholders.  In fact, they report (ultimately) to the Board of Directors
which in turn has to deal with its bosses: securities analysts.
Shareholders are so far down the line they're over the horizon.  Every
public company in America is constrained by the requirement to report
quarterly results.  All you need to do is watch stock prices jump when
quarterly earning are announced: the turmoil in prices is almost always due
to some hair-triggered analyst trying to get out in front of the market when
a company is a penny ahead or behind of expectations.  In the big picture,
IBM has a tough job of triangulating between customers, competitors, and
analysts.

It's this reality that forced IBM to drop OS/2.  Who knows where Linux would
be today if we had our choice of OS/2 or Windows to run out desktops?

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-admin@midrange.com [mailto:rpg400-l-admin@midrange.com]On
Behalf Of Richard B Baird
Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2002 3:48 PM
To: rpg400-l@midrange.com
Subject: RE: DIM question (Was MOVE/MOVEL and %Scan)


My 2 cents worth:

The current discussion seems to be a choice between status quo and the
future.
Both views have a place at the table.

Hans is not the bad guy.  Whether we like it or not (I do :), he is
representative of the future of the platform, even though he may feel
'hindered' by the past.  Give the guy a break - maybe he'd like to turn rpg
into python, but he is forced, by ibm decree, to abide by the iseries
hipocratic oath - 'do no harm to legacy applications.'  Plus, other than
estimating the cost of development - I would be suprised if he has much of
a voice in what features are added or changed in the compiler.

IBM, i don't think, will abandon it's current base of iseries customers.
It has been a solid profit center for them for years.

But...  While profitable, the iseries, as-is, is not a growth industry.  We
all know the numbers - very few iseries sales are 'new business'.  They
make a tidy profit on current customers, but they aren't gaining market
share.

IBM top execs answer to the shareholders.  They are paid to take chances
that are potentially profitable, or to cut costs without reducing revenue.
None of current ibm execs got to where they are because they advocate
standing pat.

This could mean combining the xseries/iseries hardware.  This could mean
making all of thier platforms 'os non-specific'. It could mean a lot of
things, that I'm not smart enough to guess.  but the iseries isn't the box
we knew 5 years ago, and it definately won't be the box we know now, 5
years from now.  Change IS inevitable, or we WILL see the end of the
iseries.

Our job is to help steer the platform towards the change that will achieve
the best balance of satisifying current customers, while drawing new ones
to the platform.  This balance is essential.  You can't have one without
the other.

Rick

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