RE: Thats all folks!

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Joe Lee
>
> But I don't want webfacing. The web is too slow, even the fastest web
> server/browser combination takes a noticeable amount of time to get a
> new page, I don't want my data entry people that can type 100wpm waiting
> even 1 second between pages. I want my applications to have the same
> response times as my green screen apps. This means that I need to have a
> client that has a constant connection to the AS400 not a web browser
> that has to make an HTTP request every time I want a new screen.

Joe, you might not want webfacing, but HTML isn't necessarily as bad as all
that.  On my little model 270, I get subsecond response time all the time.
Think about it; if you can keep your web pages under 10KB (or 80KBits) on a
typical 100MB Ethernet line, you're talking less than a millisecond in
actual transmission time.


> I have been using and creating web pages since ~93 and I think that it
> is great for many things but a replacement for a green screen isn't one
> of them. The web is great for reporting, but it sucks for data entry,
> and where most users of the AS400 spend most of their time is doing data
> entry not viewing reports.

I generally see response times of about a quarter of a second on my LAN.
You can hold down the roll key and roll through pages three or four a
second.

The big issue in usability is probably typeahead, which incidentally is a
function of your emulator, not the 5250 interface.  There's also the issues
surrounding numeric only fields and the like, all of which can be handled
with just a little JavaScript.

Joe Pluta
Pluta Brothers Design, Inc.
www.plutabrothers.com