RE: 5250-to-HTML servlet?

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Price, Chris
>
> Since IBM have only just announced that Webfacing can run with the
> interactive tax, and since it only applies to V5R2 machines,
> surely Seagull
> still have a massive potential customer base for a product like XCaliber?
> Even if they have to write something else to make use of this theoretical
> API for the newer machines, I can't see them, and companys like them, not
> wanting to.

Chris, I've been in that market space for years now, and all I can tell you
is that someone who is still sitting on a V4R5 or earlier release isn't very
likely to be implementing web services anytime soon, and XCaliber is really
only suited for web services.

For V5R2 and up, if someone can design a non-intrusive version, then
XCaliber is going to be a pretty unattractive option.


> I'd argue that since IBM is going to be giving little choice on the new
> hardware (all interactive you want or none) there is a very
> strong need for this API to be available, not just to BP's, but
publically.

I'd agree with you, with the caveat that very few people are going to know
how to use it.  Using thee API requires knowledge of server/client
architecture, my term for replacing the 5250 UI with a servlet/HTML front
end.  Writing a server/client architecture is not easy.  You might want to
get a copy of my book, "e-Deployment: The Fastest Path to the Web".  It
spells out in detail (with working code samples) the work required to
implement such an architecture.

Joe