<Nathan>
Developers will choose among Eclipse, Tomcat, Struts, Hybernate, JBOSS,
.Net, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python, mySQL, WebSmart, CGIDEV2, Dreamweaver,
FLEX/Flash, etc. no matter how much effort and resources IBM and 3rd party
vendors put into promoting Websphere and Rational Developer tools.
User interface is in control of other hands now, particularly those who
control development of Internet Explorer, Firefox, FLEX/Flash, and other
browser technologies like AJAX. IBM may be a huge company, but it won't
have much say in where UI technologies go in the future.
</Nathan>
I disagree with you on this point, and the following response isn't really
directed at you but the whole of IBM that hasn't given RPG developers, their
mainstay on the System i5, what they need to be successful. IBM has most of
their success when they create proprietary and intimately integrated
solutions. That is why we all love RPG/DB2400/i5OS so much right? And that
is one reason why so many started, and have stayed with, the System i5 for
so long - right? RPG developers have life pretty good except for the uphill
non-GUI battle we continually fight. If IBM were to develop a native GUI
that displayed in a proprietary thick client I think it would take off like
wildfire. Note that all of the code would still reside and run on the
server so deployment wouldn't be an issue. Close on the heals of that would
be a browser component that would play the same role (and in all actuality
they would just be downloading IBM's thin client similar to what we all do
with Flash/Flex/JavaFX/etc). [I am going to stop there on my idea's for a
GUI front for brevities sake]
Younger developers (35 and under) often switch platforms/languages like
underwear - whatever feels the most comfortable at the time they will wear -
I know, I have been an underwear switcher :-). Imagine if IBM were to offer
great looking application development for the enterprise that was _really
easy_ to create? This is what we have today with RPG/DB2400/i5OS minus the
good looks. They would not only pull from the younger developer pools but
would also get people from huge enterprises running mainframes to convert
over simply because it makes solid business sense.
Open source technologies that have many fingers in the pie (i.e. IBM has to
share with Sun, BEA, Eclipse, Apache, etc) has only slowed IBM down. They
aren't allowed to develop at their fastest pace because they have to wait
for standards groups and the like. Sure they are represented nicely in
those groups, but it still slows them down.
IBM could do a lot for application development on the System i5 if they
introduced a native GUI vs. all of this platform independence Java/EGL/WAS
jeeeeunk! [I actually like Java, but it wasn't meant for business
development on the System i5 IMO] Whenever I hear George Farr talk about
RPG I am cheering big time while he lists potential things coming in RPG,
and then he starts talking platform independence and EGL... (hearts sinks to
toes) - it's the vendors he is listening to, not the homegrown software
folks that make up the majority of their market share.
Thoughts?
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
midrange.com
