Re: Free OS/400 -- MIDRANGE-L

Joe,

I'm with you.  IMHO, Webfacing amounts to no more than screen scraping
and that is still an interactive penalty session.  Not a good thing.

I think that you are on the right track.  Personally I don't care if I
have to revisit every single program to tweak it a bit.  I've been in
this profession too long not to expect to. Can we say Y2K?

As a matter of fact, when the underlying paradigm shifted enough I've
been willing to throw out everything I have and start over again.  I'm
small enough that I have to be swift or get eaten! ;)

So this begs the question ... what is the best "classic" 5250 design
model that would lend itself well to your tool?

I've been following your project for the past year and a half with much
interest.  Since I tossed out the WyattERP project I've been watching
and wondering how to incorporate your ideas into a mixed dumb tube, fat
client, mix.

Tell you what, I'm not nearly clever enough to figure out how to get a
DDS subfile scroll bar (that Booth wouldn't live without!) to turn into
some other interface, but I can handle the back end business rule side
and standard program model in my sleep.  I write very predictable boring
code.  Actually my code generator writes very boring code.  He's a HAL
9000 series. ;) 

If you would be willing to, let's take a really boring example, like
maintaining a zip code table, and I'll do the back end within the
WyattERP project to facilitate your front end as a proof of concept. 
Something so simple that even the JDE, BPCS, etc. folks can see the
point without the clutter.

I'll put the code on John Ross' machine at Netshare400 with a
before/between/after same function comparison that anyone can look at.

The boss is out on vacation so let's just sneak some "real" work into
the summer.

J. Kilgore
"The Boss"
Progressive Data Systems, Inc.
WyattERP@James-W-Kilgore.com



Joe Pluta wrote:
> 
> My belief is that what has not yet been developed is an application
> development strategy that takes into account both the concept of
> revitalizing existing legacy systems while at the same time enabling the
> transition to true distributed applications.  Webfacing, like most of the
> other prettification options, focuses on the interface, not the application,
> and thereby craetes a technological dead end.  The work applied to the GUI
> is can't be reused in a distributed architecture.
> 
> So, if you believe as I do that the correct architecture for new
> applications is a distributed client/server architecture, then the ideal
> toolset provides the following:
> 
> 1. A way to quickly place a graphical front end on an existing application
> 2. Support for browsers, thick client and XML
> 3. A standard client/server framework for new development
> 4. Work done revitalizing legacy systems can be reused for new development
> 
<<snip>>
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