Re: "Webulating" RPG -- MIDRANGE-L

Jon,

Please read all the way through before you flame me, OK?   :-)

>It would be nice to think that "wisdom" is what I have - sadly "battle scars"
>is closer to the truth.  I've spent the better part of my life for the last ten
>years trying to persuade people to update the way they do things.  Not on a
>"grand" scale like switching to OO - that is after all a very big leap.  Rather
>on a smaller incremental scale, like simply upgrading the AD environment, using
>RPG IV, that kind of thing.

I have to concur that getting a Midranger to change is not the easiest of tasks.
One reason *may* be that the AS/400 appeals to the "cheap" crowd: you know,
"Low cost of ownership" and "You don't need a large staff" and "Reliable,
dependable, economical."  How many businesses buy a /400 because it 
fulfills their business needs without a lot of hassle?

My previous employer is a business where every nickel counts.  They couldn't
spend oodles of money chasing the latest technology rainbow.  When I last
checked, they still have an F50, and are happy with it.

>Just to give you an example.  Last fall I did a roadshow on the west coast.
>The theme was "Things you must do, things you should do, and things you might
>do" (which equated to Y2K, updating your AD environment, and Java).  During the
>"updating your AD" part, I did a brief demonstration of VARPG - which included
>showing the CODE/400 editor.  Just about every time someone in the audience
>would ask if they could get such an editor to work with their existing RPG
>programs.  When I pointed out that CODE/400 had been available for years (I
>know .. I know .. it was OS/2 only until a year ago) the usual reaction was
>amazement.  I then took to asking the audience how many of them had heard of
>CODE/400.  During all the sessions we did (and on many other occasions) the
>number has never been greater than about 25% - and this is among those who are
>sufficiently interested in AD to even bother going to sessions like this!!

Ummmm... Don't blame the audience for ignorance here.  IBM has the name and
address of each and every company that has an AS/400.  They can certainly market
CODE/400 better if they want to.

>Our marketing is obviously not as good as it should be, but discussions with
>others such as Aldon (who market Flex/Edit) lead me to believe that the AS/400
>crowd as a whole are difficult to reach, and even harder to sell to.  It would
>be interesting to survey those on this list (obviously among the leaders in
>AS/400 technology!) to see just how many are still using SEU as their primary
>editor (which as I've said in the past I regard as being the equivalent of
>using a sharpened screwdriver to do fine woodcarving!!)

Going back to the economics of this situation, my previous boss had a problem
justifying $500.00 per seat (4 seats) for an editor that: 
1. Has a learning curve (Joe Programmer can't be 100% efficient immediately)
2. Isn't on every box we'll be using (travel to client sites)
3. Isn't well known by lots of Midrangers

Imagine my current employer shelling out $500.00 for a hundred seats.  That's
a lot of money to spend "just to give a programmer a mouse."

It's up to Aldon, IBM and the rest to convince the guys who write the checks
of the cost/benefit for any of these "new fangled" ideas.  You have to SELL
them on these goods.  My boss thinks I'd jump on *every* new idea, product
or technology that crosses my desk (and maybe I would...) so he discounts
my sales pitch.

Before you pillory me for even penning these lines, please take note that
these are not *MY* views: I'd spend the money in an instant!  It's incredibly
hard to write modular code when the editor hinders your every move.  
Unfortunately,
we already own those sharpened screwdrivers, and we've already turned out work
that's good enough.

Listen to what I'm saying here:  My boss thinks that SEU is good enough.  My 
boss
thinks that it's not cost efficient to train the entire staff (4 or 100) in a 
new paradigm
(ILE, editor, Java?!)  My boss thinks that it's hard enough to simply *pay* an 
experienced AS/400 programmer, much less outfit him with "state of the art" 
tools 
and equipment to do cutting edge development for software that is already 
mature.
Don't rant and rave at the boss for these ideas: It's the boss' job to minimise 
expenses and maximise performance.  When the boss thinks he's already
doing that, it's IBM's job to convince him that times have changed.

I seriously doubt that I'm alone here.  For every one of the "top level" posters
to this list, there are literally thousands who quietly run their S/36 code on
their black boxes and are quite happy in that state.  Listen to me when I tell
you that in order to sell CODE/400, ILE or Java you need to reach these quietly
happy shops and *prove to them* that there's a better way.  If IBM can't do 
that;
if Aldon can't do that, then maybe there simply isn't a market for advanced
tools for the AS/400.

I don't know how many people you reach on a road show, or how many times
you give the same pitch to the same people, but I can tell you that in 20 years,
I've never once received a piece of mail from IBM telling me about what's
available, asking me for a survey of what I'd like, or telling me how to submit
my "wish list" to IBM.  Not one.  IBM knows who I am via software APARs, 
hardware service calls, my local CE and the Internet.  It's unrealistic for IBM
to think that the businessperson, the programmer, the _individual_ is going to
spend hours, weeks and months of her life researching all the things that
IBM and others sell for the AS/400.  Road shows are better than nothing, 
but how much better?

Lest you think me merely a "doom and gloomer", I have some suggestions:
Try shipping free copies to people who spend X dollars, or at random!
Try giving away tutorials on using modern tools, and give some away.
Try shipping *working* ILE applications with source and a step by step
tutorial so people aren't afraid of it.  Try targeting programmers with your 
marketing material: if you generate enough interest in this stuff at the 
programmer
level, employers will have to start considering adopting it to attract new 
people.
Try giving beta versions to more shops.  Take surveys and listen to what you 
hear.  
Prepare "white papers" detailing cost/benefits of moving to newer techniques; 
give references, case studies and examples that match some of the many 
customers you have.

A lot of people have a lot of faith in IBM.  That's why SEU is so slow to die.
IBM could kill SEU any time it wanted to, and replace it with CODE/400.
If IBM still supports it, that's good enough for the boss.  Apparently, that's
good enough for IBM, too.

Sigh.  I've said my piece, and I'm ready for the flames that are bound to
follow...

Buck Calabro
Commsoft, Albany, NY
mcalabro@commsoft.net

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