5250 changes (was Re: Fast400 Value to iSeries community is less than zero )

On Sun, 11 November 2001, "M. Lazarus" wrote:

>   The 5250 interactive data stream has been around for decades.  It is
> stable and is not being improved upon (at least significantly.)  There is
> relatively little cost for IBM to support it

This brings up a point I'm not clear on. While it's true that 5250 has been 
around and in itself is not being significantly improved, I'm not sure that 
that's the whole story.

Two major elements seem ignored. First, the old physical workstation 
controllers are fading fast. And second, though the data stream is more or less 
unchanged, there have been significant "enhancements" in how the system 
supports it.

I have no figures, but I suspect the majority of 5250 is now TN5250 or TN5250E. 
(Personally, I believe IBM did a superb job in getting TN5250 defined and then 
implementing it in AS/400s. This was done before CFINTnn became a significant 
issue.) Adapting existing 5250 support to handle TN5250 could not have been a 
cheap undertaking. TN5250E brought user/password and named devices, both major 
items.

The point is simply that 5250 is in fact being enhanced and supporting it must 
be almost a pure iSeries cost especially now that TCP/IP is no longer a 
chargeable item.

Tom Liotta



--
Tom Liotta
The PowerTech Group, Inc.
19426 68th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Phone  253-872-7788
Fax  253-872-7904
http://www.400Security.com


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