RE: Thats all folks! -- MIDRANGE-L

The rate of change on iSeries has been faster over the last 10 years because
it has had to be faster to catch up. IBM has done a very good job of
bringing iSeries up to the level of other systems on the market. They've
done this by borrowing from cousins (LPAR) and embracing technology from
other platforms (Java, Linux).

And it's true...the code I wrote 20+ years ago on a System/3 Model 8 would
run on the biggest 890. I don't know if that's a good thing (I think I'm a
better coder than I was 20+ years ago, and I know that I can certainly do
things cleaner than I could then), but it is true that old code can run on a
new box.

From: "Joe Pluta" <joepluta@PlutaBrothers.com>
Reply-To: midrange-l@midrange.com
To: <midrange-l@midrange.com>
Subject: RE: Thats all folks!
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 14:33:30 -0600

> From: James Rich
>
> But data loss absolutely never happens.  Unscheduled
> downtime (excepting power outages that take out both machines) does not
> happen.

Both happen on Linux machines.  On Unix machines I have seen various
databases (in order, Informix, Sybase and least frequently Oracle) go
casters up and require lengthy rebuilds.  I think it depends to a large
extent on system load, and (one would hope) it happens less frequently now.

> > But Scott, the AS/400 has had the most radical series of changes of
any
> > platform in the last year, five years, 10 years, whatever
> period you want.

> ILE is very similar to the language bindings available on other
platforms.

(...)

I knew this was going to go this route.  I talked about rate of change -
while other platforms had these things, the AS/400 didn't.  I thought that
was pretty clear.  But I knew someone was going to jump in and miss the
point and state the obvious - that other platforms already have these
things.

I honestly don't know how to write any clearer, but I will try to restate
my
point, focusing on the real issue: the rate of change on the AS/400 has
been
far higher than any other platform the last (N) years.  What this has done
is open the platform to all the things that everybody complains the AS/400
is lacking, while keeping legacy investment intact.  No other platform has
managed that.

> If these unique components fit your needs (which they do for many)
> then it is a better machine than the others.

It's uniquenesses are what make it best suited for business applications.
The new features make it work and play better in the open network, that's
all.

> That it can run 10 year old code is great and helps my shop which has
code
> older than that, I suspect that it really isn't much of a selling point
> (though I'm not a salesman, so it may be).  I just don't know about the
> impact of the statement, "Hey, you can run 10 year old programs on this
> baby!"

Then you don't have many clients.  There are a ton of people out there with
systems that run just fine, thank you, and they don't need to rewrite them
every two years because the vendor has once again changed their direction.

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