RE: No 5250-based applications

> From: "James W. Kilgore" <eMail@James-W-Kilgore.com>

> Nathan,

> You're not alone in the quest for a browser interface to replace 5250
> data streams.

> There have been threads about this issue in the past.  There have been a
> couple of arguement against it:

> 1) stopping the user from pressing the browser 'back' button.

Not sure what you mean?  I have never had a problem with a user clicking the
<back> button.

> 2) The amount of data that now must be pushed through
> the pipe.

That's what big pipes are for <smile>.  Actually, this is something the
developer should take into account.  The trick is to design a non-bloated
user interface.  GIF images are relatively small, and are cached by the
browser after the first download.  So they work well as a <Fn> key
replacements.  Another key is to use style sheets rather than in-line
styling.  The browser can cache a style sheet that is used across dozens of
pages.  Less HTML to download.

> 3) (related to above) The time it takes to format an HTML
> page and all the building/parsing that has to happen to
> exchange information.

The solution to this is a framework of generic reusable components.  It
really saves a lot of coding normally devoted to parsing input and building
output.  I use externally defined HTML templates, similar to externally
defined 5250 record formats.

With the help of a Web framework, code and maintenance are rather trivial.
Nevertheless, all Web applications require more CPU and memory.  For me,
that's the big difference between Web and 5250 applications.

> I'm kicking around the idea of taking the guts out of our
> interactive programs and have that workload performed
> by a batch program.  The interactive workload becomes
> trivial and therefore not as likely to trigger the governor.

Hmmm, design an application around the CFINT governor?  Sounds pretty
desperate.  In my opinion, 5250 applications and the hardware required to
run them are still a bargain, even with the governor.  Just divide the
hardware cost by the number of active users, then compare it to the cost of
supporting an equivalent number of Visual Basic users.

Nathan.


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