RE: 5250-to-HTML servlet?

> From: Jon Paris
>
> Joe - my understanding is that Seagull, Jacada, etc. already have
> access to
> the same API that WebFacing uses.  There was no way IBM would get
> away with
> keeping it "secret" so the WF guys had at best a year or so's head start.
> Don't know the exact terms under which the API information is
> revealed - it
> is still not a public API as far as I know - but I know they have it
> available to them.  Probably via the Partnerworld agreement I would guess.
>
> For this reason I would assume that they will also be able to run as batch
> in the future just as WF will be able to.  WF was always designed
> to run in
> batch - it just needed a marketing decision on Rochester's part to change
> the interactive policy.

Jon, I appreciate your insight.  I see a couple of realities that contradict
your conclusion that the screen scrapers will come up with batch versions
sometime soon.

First, since when can't IBM keep an API secret?  Do you have the protocol
for the client access host servers?  There may be an API, but that doesn't
mean IBM is giving it away.

Next, if there are such APIs, then Seagull must be TICKED OFF.  Had they
known, they would not have had to write the XCaliber product, which is
intrusive.  The amount of work required to actually modify a program's
source is quite extensive, and if they had had access to the APIs you
mention, they wouldn't have had to do it.  They are now heavily invested in
that strategy, and I don't know whether they'll be willing to throw it away.

Third, even if they do have access to the APIs, it's still a HUGE amount of
work to write the runtime portion.  You can quickly do half a job, but to go
as far as WebFacing (or PSC/400) does requires a depth of knowledge of
display files that is lacking outside of IBM.  Heck, I still do better than
WebFacing in a few areas.

Hey, I may be wrong.  I've been wrong before.  But I'm betting that even if,
as you say, the screen scraper folks are working on such a solution, they're
right now pulling their hair out trying to figure out how the heck the
CHANGE indicator works.  Or the INFDS.  Or KEEP and ASSUME.

Finally, if such an API exists, please let me know who I need to talk to
(you can do it offline if you prefer), since I'm evidently the only person
in the world who needs it who doesn't have it, and I'm a member of
PartnerWorld.

Joe