Re: RPG and Web.. (was Using OO concepts in RPG)

Tom Liotta wrote:
> Well, after thinking this over and over, I'm missing something somewhere.
> 
> Does IBM support Python?
> If not...
> ...then, for RPG, wouldn't we look to %bif()s for similar functionality?
> or, perhaps better, to system service programs/APIs? I'm not clear whether
> IBM supplies "procedure libraries" that fit the bill for RPG.
> 
> I guess in short it comes down to "Does IBM want us to use iSeries as a
> server on the intranet/Internet? And if so, does IBM want us to use it's
> primary supported iSeries language to do it?"
> 
> It seems to me from my limited viewpoint that the answer to at least one
> of those questions is "No." Unless... RPG's not what it once was.

Clearly IBM supports the use of the iSeries as a server, and all the good 
Apache and Websphere stuff is proof of that. 

So the relevant question in this RPG mailing list is: "How much should the 
RPG language support internet protocols?". An equivalent question is: "How 
much should C support the IP's?". Neither C nor RPG have any language 
functionality that's of direct interest to the IP's, and why should they? 
More properly, that functionality belongs to API's or function libraries. 
Just as you wouldn't expect to see A/R or A/P built-in's in the language, 
you shouldn't expect to find IP specific built-in's either. But of course, 
there are indeed API's and function/procedure libraries, and you can 
certainly call them from RPG.

So even though lots of good IP functionality already exists in Websphere 
(supported by IBM), and lots of good IP functionality exists in Perl or 
Python class libraries (supported by the open source community), plus lots 
of other 3rd party commercial tools, you certainly can roll your own IP 
code using C or RPG if you really want to. There's not much in either RPG 
or C that prevents you from doing IP programming.

If you want easier to use tools (much like the powerful tools available for 
Java, Perl, or Python), look to the developers of libraries like CGIDEV2, 
and ask them for the additional functionality you need.

Cheers! Hans