RE: AS/400

[Lou Forlini <lforlini@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 1:55 PM -0500 7/30/01, Joe Pluta wrote:
>If they're already running fine, why do they need to upgrade at all?

    Capacity and performance.

>I'm
>not advocating my techniques for existing, happy clients.  I advocate my
>solution for people who wish to:
>
>A. Take advantage of a browser or thick-client interface
>B. Reduce the interactive tax
>-or-
>C. Start moving to client/server
>
>If your 10-15 man shop doesn't need any of those, it doesn't need my
>approach.  If it DOES need one of those, what is your alternative?

    These accounts only need b).  And the only reason they need b) is 
because IBM inserted it into their upgrade path.

>This is most definitely NOT running in place.  It is simply the first step
>in a staged, progressive re-engineering existing systems.  The first step is
>to separate the UI and the business logic.  Once you've done that, you can
>begin the rest of the work that needs to be done to move all or part of your
>existing systems to a true n-tier design.

    Sorry, I can't sell that.  There is no need for most of these 
applications to be client/server in the first place.  The users don't 
need it and the management won't pay for it.

>This is not for everyone.  You need to be open to new ideas, willing to
>learn new concepts, and above all, be willing to rethink how you design
>applications.  But the good news is that by using a technique like mine, you
>can do this in a gradual manner.  No massive rewrite like Y2K; instead, you
>can modify programs one at a time or all at once, you can leave some
>programs green screen, revitalize some, and reengineer others.  It's up to
>you.

    Thanks for the info.  I'll look into what you've done in more detail.

    Regards,

    - Lou Forlini
      Software Engineer
      System Support Products, Inc.
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