ODBC and iSeries

Thanks, Walden.  You're right - our hashing these issues is sometimes an
exercise that only we two appreciate <grin>.  I'll make one two-part
comment, since you've admirably covered all my other points.

> OK, perhaps the words "use the iSeries like a large database" were
> poorly chosen.

And that I think was my problem.  The phrase conjures in my mind UPDATE
... WHERE statements running on the client, or worse yet, opening
scrollable, updateable cursors with commitment control active across a
network connection <shudder>.

> But my point was that you don't need a special toolkit
> to call a program, a stored proc call is just as good.

And while I'll agree that stored procedures work, I think they are not
necessarily the best answer to a distributed environment.  I think the
capabilities of a true messaging system are far more powerful.  Things
like load balancing and security are better handled through a true
messaging system.  On the other side of the coin, of course, is the
flexibility of the interface.  Stored procedures are much more
accessible.  So as anything, it's a business decision <grin>.

Joe