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  • Subject: Re: Survey for AS/400 Developers (ISERIES) DB2/400
  • From: "R. Bruce Hoffman, Jr." <rbruceh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 11:39:52 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: Don <dr2@cssas400.com>
To: David Dunfield <ddunfie@net-link.net>
Cc: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Date: Friday, October 27, 2000 11:09 AM
Subject: RE: Survey for AS/400 Developers (ISERIES) DB2/400


>
>
>Guys, there was a email in the body of the original note that wanted
>comments.  I don't know if thier sub'd to m-l but folk should be
>automatically cc'ing that person.
>
>As I read this, it's telling me that SQL is the only way IBM wants people
>to be able to access their data...I have a problem with that.
>


No, that's not quite it.

What they are saying is that some of the functionality of an SQL column
function, was extracted by native calls (RPG open, chain, read, etc) by
placing a view over the table (a logical file that maps data instead of
keying data) and that NEW functionality added to SQL after V4R5 would not be
available through the native I/O (but available through SQL calls).

This is a backward compatibility issue for native I/O only and only when
used with a view to access SQL functions that may not have been available in
previous releases, but are made available at a later date and used by
(possibly) a software vendor, to which you may have pointed programs with
native I/O.

For example, you use an RPG program to read a file, a view supplied by (say)
JDE over the address book. This view maps some column using a function that
may or may not have been available in RPG. Say the WEEKOFYEAR function over
a date data type. The view returns the ordinal week within that year that
the date falls within. Your program gets this number as an integer through
the view.

If the vendor adds a post-V4R5 function to the view, then when your RPG
program runs, it will fail.

Essentially, they are saying what they have always said, "if we have $100
dollars to spend, where are we going to spend it?". If they spend 50 on
adding function and then 50 on just providing multiple avenues of access to
the function, then we (and yes, that's WE) LOOSE $50 worth of functionality
until (maybe) another release or two.

Insisting on IBM to provide the backward compatibility in the 400 platform,
through other interfaces other than SQL is one of the reasons that DB2 UDB
for OS/400 lags behind the DB2 UDB for other platforms.

===========================================================
R. Bruce Hoffman, Jr.
 -- IBM Certified Specialist - AS/400 Administrator
 -- IBM Certified Specialist - RPG IV Developer

"Those who would give up essential Liberty,
  to purchase a little temporary Safety,
  deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     - The Papers of Ben Franklin



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