Re: RPG II / OCL Conversion -- MIDRANGE-L

Booth

At 07:00 PM 12/12/1997 -0500, you wrote:
>on 12/12/97at 03:18 PM, the Great and Grand  Wazir Vern Hamberg
><hambergv@goldengate.net> said:
>
>
>>We'll be using ODBC in a client/server thing that we've contracted out.
>>It's really just a generic wrapper around SQL, anyway. I use it
>>occasionally to get 400 data into Word or Excel. Of course, it is
>>Windows-specific. That's where JDBC is a better option for portability, I
>>think, but I've not had much chance yet to use Java.
>
>Have you used VisualAge RPG at all?  That is client-server, appc now,
>tcp/ip in 1Q98.  I've used it on my PC and love it.  I did a real RPG
>program on my PC.  I put up a dialog box, asking for a date and then
>replied with the day of the week for that day.  Simple I know, but hey, it
>works, it is RPG, and it is on a PC.  (I am anxious to actually use it on
>an AS/400 this spring.  I have not had good response times with ODBC, and
>security seems a bit... helter-skelter?)

I've not use VA RPG *yet*, but I'm taking a look at it. Because I have more
PC experience, perhaps, than most 400 dudes, I, personally, have not
needed/wanted RPG on a PC. But I want to give it a fair shake. So I'm
looking at a beta of the Windows version. After working with VA fo Java,
I've thought that VA RPG might just be a nice thing, esp. for some of our
400 people.

As far as ODBC goes, performance depends on a number of things. For one
thing, if you use the Jet engine of MS Access or VB, it's terrible, because
they write to the utmost lowest common denominator. It's important to strip
off as many layers as possible, hence, RDO (in VB) or direct to the APIs is
the way to go.

Then, you want to take advantage of the SQL package facility on the 400. To
do this, set your ODBC to use extended something or other. That way, any
SQL statement you send will create an SQL package the first time.
Subsequently, that package will be used for optimization, since it contains
the access plan for thw statement.

Other things are very important, like appropriate access paths and sharing
access paths. Of course, the speed of your connection will affect everything.

There is a manual, 'Client Access for Windows 95 ODBC User's Guide', I
think, that is actually excellent and readable (from IBM, yet). It has very
good info on ODBC in general, as well as making ODBC run better to AS/400s.
Required reading, IMO.

Security _is_ an issue, and there are a number of info APARs that deal with
it, as well as other ODBC issues.

HTH

Cheers

Vernon Hamberg
Systems Software Programmer
Old Republic National Title Insurance Company
400 Second Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN  55401-2499
(612) 371-1111 x480


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