Joe,
With due respect, and understanding that you are more involved with EGL
than most, I find it hard to believe that many RPG shops are really
USING egl. Interest is there, certainly, but I have yet to see anyone
using it for more than proof of technology projects.
Just for the record, here's my opinion on EGL. I've taken the EGL
foundation course and the RUI course, and recognize the utility of the
product. I'm impressed with its capabilities, and have fallen in love
with RUI. This product has huge potential, and I expect to see it grow
once IBM releases the community edition.
But, there's still a lot of slop in the product. Take the last call for
help for example. Calling QCMDEXC via JT400 in Tomcat... How many days
did it take to confirm that it just didn't work as expected? This
should have been a trivial exercise, that any i shop would be expected
to use a great deal. I believe IBM needs to develop i-specific training
and support if they want to bring us along.
Here's what's happened to me since we bought our first license for
Rdi-SOA:
1) Installed from CD, but update packages did not recognize my base
package Ids, so I could never update.
2) Installation of Rdi updates without applying egl updates hosed the
whole package (JVM update issue), requiring reinstall.
3) Finally get things working at RBD 7.5.1.1, but missing features (Site
Navigation) forced another update to 7.5.1.2
4) Even after update, site navigation still did not show up for projects
touched by an earlier release, forcing me to start from scratch (again).
This was just the lead in to the EGL foundation course. Not really
satisfying, imo. We hired a Java programmer to help up move forward
with EGL...
Jmo,
-Eric
-----Original Message-----
From: egl-i-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:egl-i-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Joe Pluta
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 8:34 PM
To: EGL on and around the IBM i
Subject: Re: [EGL-i] deployment/debugging
Jon Paris wrote:
I should have known that I couldn't say a thing on an EGL list without
Joe turning it into a personal attack.
So were you providing an alternative, or were you just complaining? I
don't see where it's particularly helpful to come on the EGL list and
complain about how hard EGL is for RPG programmers, especially since so
many RPG programmers are using it successfully. But if you feel it
necessary to complain about EGL, I just like to present the alternate
view.
Note - I didn't say a thing about PHP being easier - better - or
anything else - I didn't mention PHP.
Oh, yes, the protestation of innocence and fairness. That dog don't
hunt. You promote PHP all over the place, including sessions in your
own summit, but your contribution to the EGL community is to come on the
EGL mailing list and say you have to be a Java guru to use it. It takes
some real moxie to then try to say you're not biased.
Well, you can say whatever you want, but you'll get my responses as
well.
I have ALWAYS said that I like EGL and think it has potential. I have
recommended it to several of my clients and will continue to do so.
Damning with faint praise, Jon. EGL has far more than potential, it is
a breakthrough tool and is light years ahead of the alternatives. The
thin client tools are more productive than any other tooling for the i,
and the rich client stuff, while relatively new, simply blows everything
else away. This is not "potential", it's kinetic <smile>.
But I remain concerned over the ability of small shops with zero Java/
App server etc. experience to deploy it successfully.
Period - end of story.
What is your alternative? Does it start with a P? Does it end with a
P? Enquiring minds want to know!
Joe
midrange.com
