RE: WebSphere Development ToolSet and a beginner

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: McIntyre Don
>
> 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.

My only concern about this tool is that it's closed, like RPG-CGI or
Net.data.  Learning this tool is not really giving you any added skills
other than this tool, whereas if you learn JSP and servlets, you've added a
broadly required skillset to your arsenal.  You're stuck using their editor
to edit RPG, and you have to hope they keep up with the latest and greatest
standards.  For example, I don't know if they support free format yet.  And
with CGI there's no way to really do a WYSIWYG editor for your user
interface.  I also don't know what kind of debugging environment they have.

On the other hand, if you go the JSP model 2 route, you can use what is
probably the most integrated environment available, WDSC.  With WDSC, you
can edit JSPs, servlets, RPG, everything all in one editor, and test and
debug at the source level right on your PC.

Anyway, if you're looking to expand your skill set, I think servlet/JSP has
more to offer.  Of course, my PSC/400 tool is JSP based so I'm biased, and I
sell a book on learning Eclipse, so I'm biased there too.  At the same time,
I've been pretty successful with that technology, so I'm a good reference
<smile>.

Joe