Re: [MI400] 5250 graphics

["Steve Richter" <srichter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim, others:


The 5250 data stream has what looks to be a rich set of graphics orders.
GDDM is implemented using these orders.

Graphics orders are a very efficient way to transmit graphics to a display.
They are programmer friendly and device independent. Example orders:  Draw a
bar chart, place grid lines around a subfile listing, shade the top area of
the screen, gray the bottom half.

Display file DDS is a very good vehicle for coding graphics orders.

Telnet 5250 ( tn5250 ) is an open internet standard. It, along with tn3270,
look to be the most feature rich of the telnet specs ( by far ).

The iSeries is the best Telnet server on the market. ( also by far )

Telnet  has great connectivity options. You can client connect to the server
from dumb terminals, palm devices, and pc's.

I will stop now, because I am not selling anything.  My question had to do
with technical aspects of 5250 graphics orders.  But I dont think very
functional features should be written off so quickly.

-Steve Richter


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Langston" <jlangston@celsinc.com>
To: <mi400@midrange.com>
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 12:04 PM
Subject: RE: [MI400] 5250 graphics


Hmm.. for that matter, why couldn't you write your own API to
do graphics, which would change the way they were transmitted
dependant on what device the user was using?  If they were
using a GDDM capable device send the data that way, otherwise
send using IP socket to some VB client that would display them?

The answer, I think, is the same reason GDDM died, not much
need for it.

Regards,

Jim Langston

-----Original Message-----
From: thomas@inorbit.com [mailto:thomas@inorbit.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2001 7:28 PM
To: mi400@midrange.com
Subject: RE: [MI400] 5250 graphics


Njål:

On Thu, 01 November 2001, "Njål Fisketjøn" wrote:

> Why burden the AS/400 to "do" the graphics, when you can easily write
> a client server app to make the PC do it?
>
> And why bother learning "stone age" API's (GDDM), when you can use VB,
Java
> or some other PC-based language?

You're right in both respects. Yet, there are reasons for both. The
immediate simple responses that come to mind are that GDDM is available for
free on AS/400s all over the world and that MI has a difficult time calling
VB programs adequately. Also keep in mind that GDDM can be used to create
printed graphics; i.e., a 5292 graphics workstation is not required for
output.

Maybe the best reason of all for this list is simply... it feels pretty cool
when you make it work!

Tom Liotta

--
Tom Liotta
The PowerTech Group, Inc.
19426 68th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Phone  253-872-7788
Fax  253-872-7904
http://www.400Security.com

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