Re: the RPG problem - adrift in the PC-web wind

On 3/10/2012 5:12 PM, Steven Spencer wrote:

Personally, starting fresh, I see no purpose in working with RPG and
the jambalaya of EGL, or CGI and PHP, or Java and this and that. Or
Open Access and the three vendors.

Not sure what you mean by "jambalaya" when you refer to EGL. It's a pretty straightforward open source 4GL with a variety of target platforms, including Java, COBOL and JavaScript. It's got integrated support for SQL that's a lot better than any other language I've seen.

And while it doesn't target only the i, it works best with the i, because it can access the database either through SQL or through direct calls to ILE programs, including RPG. Why is that important? For the same reason it's always been important to call native applications: performance! EGL provides effortless SQL access but when you really need performance you can always call good old RPG.

And that's just the business logic side! Unlike most languages, EGL provides a single syntax that works on the server and also works on the client, and tops it off with a powerful WYSIWYG editor that allows you to bind controls in your browser directly to functions in your client which in turn can invoke services on the host. And you can debug it all the way through using a single workspace!

So, yes, if I had the choice I'd build any application from the ground up using EGL and RPG. The only change is when I need a fat client on a handheld device, at which point I'd turn to Android and Java.

Joe