Re: Did anyone attend the Webfacing lab at COMMON?

From: "Buck Calabro" <Buck.Calabro@commsoft.net>

>I came away from the Webfacing sessions with the distinct
>impression that IBM is here to stay.

I take this to mean that IBM is committed to Webfacing?  I wonder how
committed?

> I'm not certain that this is going to work for us in particular
> (we use Cool:2E and are exploring other possible routes to
> Internet-enable our applications)...

Cool:2E generates 5250 RPG doesn't it?  Why wouldn't Webfacing work for your
applications?

> It's NOT screen-scraping, so things like pop-up windows actually
> open a new window, but like all browser based interfaces, it suffers
> from "don't back up" syndrome.

5250 emulation doesn't support the <Back> button either.  Is that really a
problem?

> Once the Java stuff is running, the programmers will start
> tinkering, and Web-technology will then become as "iSeries-ish"
> as RPG is today.

Is this a prediction that most applications will be written in Java?

> Is there something in particular you were looking for?

Had I been able to attend the conference, the Webfacing sessions would have
interested me.  Nobody seems to know how much more CPU is required to run a
Webfaced application.  That's one question.

I once offered the hypothesis that Webfacing was a temporary transition
technology to encourage customers to buy into Websphere.  Is that true?  Or
is the DEVELOP UNDER 5250 then DEPLOY VIA WEBFACING a viable long-term
development strategy?

Thanks Buck,

Nathan M. Andelin