CFINT/IBM's failure to provide AD tools -- MIDRANGE-L

You offer interesting ideas.  However, as a software vendor, I'm not
completely free to choose the "best" tools; our customers might not agree
with our choices and usually are resistant to buying additional supporting
applications.  So we stick with a meat-and-potatoes environment where
green-screen is extremely effective and stable (lots of remote
locations)...and we don't have the resources to support dabbling.  We're
extremely focused on the business requirements of our application and find
that challenging enough.

Having working in the midrange environment since the days of the System/3,
I'm used to having IBM provide a decent development environment.  After all,
it is a source of revenue and it could help IBM focus customers on certain
technologies, but IBM's green-screen world hasn't been a very interesting
target for 3rd party AD tools developers.  With the iSeries becoming a
server, a wide range of 3rd party tools becomes available for working in the
server world.  We hear about the "integrated" nature of the iSeries; why are
compilers and AD tools are developed by a non-Rochester-owned division?   I
think IBM's missing a monster opportunity for revenue growth and customer
management by failing to coordinate hardware, OS/400, and AD tools.  WDT/400
is "free"?  Who cares?  I'll pay thousands for the right tools; I just can't
find them (after this post hits, I'll bet they find me).

If IBM wants us into the server environment (okay, they do), they can lead
(AD tools) or push (CFINT).  There are a number of vendors with report
writers, AD tools, green-to-GUI utilities, etc., and it looks like there's
plenty of room in the marketplace.  I remain disappointed that IBM lags so
far behind; IBM should have had a complete suite of killer tools ready to go
the day they announced the IFS.

Sorry, this is a sore point for me...I'll get off my soapbox now.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com [mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com]On
Behalf Of Jim Damato
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2001 6:54 PM
To: 'midrange-l@midrange.com'
Subject: RE: Tiger Tools

>  Reeve:
>The whole CFINT thing comes back to IBM's failure to provide the
Application
>Development tools necessary to move out of the 5250 environment.

I don't really understand this.  Moving out of the 5250 environment means
moving out of the mini-computer or baby-mainframe terminal based environment
and using the AS/400 as a server.  The architecture changes to
client-server, n-tier or web-based design.  If I implement a Unix server
with an Oracle database I'm not necessarily depending on my Unix provider or
Oracle for Application Development tools.  Development is based more on my
client, app server, or web platform of choice, and many of those development
solutions are third-party.  Right now we're dabbling in developing apps
against Oracle on HP/UX using Microsoft VB, IIS, Crystal Reports, and Toad
for database scripting.  If we were developing these apps against the AS/400
server I might be looking at similar tools for the front end, replacing the
SQL Net client with OLE-DB or some home grown data interface modules.

CFINT is, to me, distasteful because it overprices the 5250 environment or
underprices the server environment, and because IBM has been deliberately
deceptive about the nature of Interactive Feature.  It would be interesting,
however, to see if iSeries servers without Interactive Feature were
profitable on their own.  Some of IBM's own statements suggest that legacy
customers are carrying iSeries server customers.  It's like they're saying
that their statement of direction is to push the iSeries toward eventually
losing money on every sale.

Still, I don't think you should be looking to IBM to produce the tools for
your application development.

-Jim

James P. Damato
Manager - Technical Administration
Dollar General Corporation
<mailto:jdamato@dollargeneral.com>
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