Re: Re: TN5250 0.16.2 released! -- LINUX5250

On Tuesday 28 Aug 2001 18:55 pm, you wrote:

> I guess that is an interesting point:  is the product supposed to emulate
> a 5250 terminal?  Are we (actually Mike, Jason, Carey, all the
> coders) trying to create something that does exactly what a 5250 terminal
> does and no more (implying that keyboard remapping would not be part of
> tn5250 - you can't remap a 5250 keyboard) or are we making something that
> allows users to access and use an AS/400?  Client Access doesn't emulate a
> 5250 terminal exactly - should we?  If we deviate from exact 5250
> emulation should we do it the same way IBM did with Client Access?
>

Point taken. I have used terminal where I can change keyboard mappings
though. They weren't IBM's and the controllers kept dying! I think tn5250
could get quite hot if it allowed people to config how they like, and the
doze version worked. Maybe IBM would open up CA if they lost oodles of CA
license fees? Nahhh...


> Neither a 5250 terminal nor Client Access can display HTML or XML, but
> embedding mozilla in tn5250 would allow that.  Or embedding tn5250 in
> mozilla (something I started on) would allow your web browser to
> seemlessly browse from web pages to green screen.  Companies interested in
> web applications would probably find that ability very useful.  In the
> host negotiation tn5250 could tell the AS/400 that it understands markup
> languages which would enable all kinds of possibilities for AS/400
> programmers.  Ever wanted to have mouse-over help for your green screen
> app?  How about launching your applications from a green screen menu by
> clicking on hyperlinks?  Context sensitive help written in HTML launched
> by the user clicking on a term they don't understand?

That sound cool, but... (and this isn't arguing against the above idea. After
all, it's all about given people the power to choose their own direction.
Urghh, did I really just say that!?)

How would it differ from the 400's 5250 gateway display service that allows
one to access the '400 with a web-browser. HTML can already be embedded into
DDS display files. I would imagine this can be stretched to anything you'd
find in a normal HTML file (I guess <form> would be a pain); so maybe
javascript mouseovers are already possible? I tried the gateway thing a
couple (or more) years ago, and although it worked, the keyboard mappings
were too inconvenient. This was from a doze box, so maybe X would allow more
control? Plus there are screen scrapper proxy/app's out there that do similar
things.

However, it could be argued that this is looking at the client side from the
wrong place. There's also the option of the '400 doing HTTP & CGI. It works
bloody well too (performance should be better), especially for people who
don't need crappy green screens for most of their work. It's great just
hyperlinking up a whole bunch of functions across different systems, letting
the user go where they want without the constraints of different menus on
different platforms (make admin easier too ;-)). Plus they can bosh up a new
session as and when they need it. But best of all, there's none of those
silly little 80x24 or 132x27 limitations (whoo hooo)! It's not a panacea, and
programming some of it is a tad irritating, but it's rare that I would need
to create DDS based displays these days.



>
> > Maybe you've already completed that wonderful howto and all the relevant
> > info is already available, and I'm just being a prat?
>
> Not complete - I'm still gathering information from the mailing list
> archives and comparing against my own notes, etc.  Thanks for the kick in
> the butt, though - I do want to get this done.


Yeah, whi-tsshh (sorry, my onomatopoeia is not good)