RE: WebSphere Development ToolSet and a beginner

--- Peter Vidal <Peter_Vidal@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> "3. What are your skill sets, and are you willing to
> learn more?"
> Absolutely that I want to learn more!  I have been
> working with RPG since 1987.
> Worked on S36, AS400 and now iSeries.  Since 2001 I
> have been exposed to the
> world of CGIs, HTMLs, Net.Data and on the last
> weeks, Javascript.  No training,
> mentors around, just books and forums like this
> (thank God for those!).

Hey Peter,
I was, and still am in the exact same boat as you. 
I've been an RPG programmer on the S/38, AS400, now
iSeries since 1982.  

I had been making great money as an independent RPG
contractor up until a little over 2 years ago.  That
was when I finally woke up from my RPG bubble and
decided that I needed to catch up to the new web world
(and even enhance my RPG World w/RPG IV, ILE, SQL, sub
procedures, etc).  And like you, I have no mentors or
Peers to help me.  I'm having to be the 'GO TO' guy at
my organization for this. (which is scary.. Ha!)
Without mentors or peers working with you, it can make
a simple problem or question take days or even weeks
to resolve.

I signed up for Java classes at the local community
college, bought and read as many books as I could get
my hands on, scoured the Internet where there is an
overwhelming number of resources & tutorials,
especially if you stay close to the Java & open source
world, which also falls in line with IBM.  You know
that all of IBM's redbooks are available in PDF
format.

Java was overwhelming for me at first, mainly because
the Object Oriented concept took me quite a while to
grasp, but I hung in there and now it's beginning to
pay off.

I am planning on staying in the Java World, but I just
saw an ad for RPG Server Pages by a company named
Damon Technologies.  It looked as though this possibly
could be a good solution for new web development.  And
get you on the web quick using RPG & HTML. The price
was great, if the product works as they say.  If
anyone has experience or first hand info on this
product, I would appreciate hearing about it. 

here is the URL.
http://www.damontech.com/rsp/solutions

Don McIntyre



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