Re: What makes Java so special

[Patrick Townsend <townsend@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Buck Calabro wrote:
> 
>(snip)
>
> > Sure, (Java)'s cool, and it's a wonderful paradigm to work within, but is it
> a technology that will easily allow me to incrementally improve my
> existing legacy code?  I think this is really what will decide if Java
> flies on the AS/400 or not.  ILE has not been the resounding success
> that, say, the introduction of OPNQRYF was.
> 

I like Java, too. But this is the one worry I have about the AS/400
implementation. How will it provide for incremental change in an AS/400
environment? The last survey I saw indicated that there are over
1,000,000 terminals (actual terminals and twin-ax cards in PCs) still
hooked to the AS/400. IBM still sells twin-ax cards and dumb terminals,
I believe. And AS/400 customers have a *lot* of investment in green
screen applications. 

As a developer if I start to write Java applications for the AS/400 have
I lost the ability to sell applications to these folks? Am I at a
disadvantage when competing with a traditional green-screen vendor? I
think the answer is yes. I've certainly gained the ability to write
applications that are platform independent, and I like that. But I'm
building in some resistance to traditional IBM shops. 

Am I missing something?

IBM could do a couple of things to help mitigate this problem:

1. Provide a Java 5250 emulation product within Client Access. I know
there
   is a Host On Demand product already. But this costs $200 per seat
with
   no discounts. It should be a part of the Client Access license.

2. Provide support in the AWT for writing to ENPTUI terminals. I know
there
   would be Java functions that would be hard to map, but at least we
would be
   able to write some code that has a chance of running in the green
screen
   environment during the transition phase.

Perhaps some of this is already planned, but I haven't seen it yet. I
agree that there needs to be a coherent migration plan from current
environments to Java. I'm not sure right now what it is....

Patrick
-- 

Patrick Townsend                       mailto:townsend@patownsend.com
Patrick Townsend & Associates, Inc.    http://www.patownsend.com

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