Re: DDS Screens To Java -- MIDRANGE-L


"Nathan M. Andelin" wrote:
>
> > From: "Brad Jensen" <brad@elstore.com>
>
> > We have a PC based 5250 terminal server, if you can convert
> > the DDS to calls maybe we could tie them together, and avoid
> > the interactive tax entirely.
>
> Brad,
>
> Some of your previous posts gave me the impression that custom VB
> applications would interface with your "5250 terminal server".  If that is
> the case, why do you call it 5250?  Does your terminal server generate a
> 5250 data stream and use the 5250 protocol?  Would programmers write their
> own VB clients to interface with your server?  Or, does it interface with a
> standard client (like a browser)?

Think of it as pretending to be an AS/400 to tn5250 screens
(which can include a green screen, running telnet, passed thru
an As/400).

So you write vb client programs that run, kind of like a cgi
program, but with the tn5250 server instead of with a web
server, on NT. They communicate with green screens running
tn5250 client, or with pcs running 5250 client (or 3270 green or
emulation screens)

I suppose if you had one of those telnet remote controllers, you
could run green screens from an nt server without any AS/400.

Yes, I am talking telnet 5250 data stream, but as a server, not
a client.


> OS/400 already has a terminal server (Telnet).


yes, and it also runs telnet 5250 client for each green screen
if requested.

> How is yours different?  Do
> you envision legacy RPG applications "calling" your terminal server?

Maybe, but you would have to replace all the screen calls and
recompile them. you would need a C program (I would think) to
talk tcpip to my server, or perhaps you could do it thru
dataqueues.

> Or,
> sending messages to it?  If messages, would the two programs communicate via
> sockets?  And what would the messages contain?  Contain both data and format
> tags (like HTML)?  If not HTML formatted text, then a proprietary
> alternative?  If the messages contain only data, where would the formatting
> come from?

I would think you would send the data along with some version of
the dds specs, that would hten be compiled and merged on the fly
on the NT server by my application. Or maybe some of the middle
ware would be on the 400.

> As you can tell, I'm bewildered.
>
> Nathan M. Andelin
> www.relational-data.com

I am not surprised, it is a novel idea. I don't know how many
people ahve actually understood what I am talking about.

Basically it is the ability to

1) write new green screen applications on NT, in VB. Forget RPG,
forget the 400. The only thing we use the 400 for is as a
communications controller, if we even use one. Direct to the
applicaiton should produce response times in the millisecond
range (except for presentation time on the workstation.)

2. Convert and recompile RPG (and COBOL, etc.) programs to talk
to the nt 5250 server, to make the programs run in batch instead
of interactive mode.

--
Brad Jensen brad@elstore.com
President
Electronic Storage Corporation Tulsa OK USA
918-664-7276

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