RE: VB and the as400 -- MIDRANGE-L

Angela,

You mention VB, not VB.Net. Unless there's a _really good_ business
reason for using "old" VB I'd have her learn VB.Net. (Actually I'd
suggest you dump VB in favor of C#, but if you must use VB...) Think of
VB.NET vs VB this way: You could learn RPG/400 -- it's still in use, and
you can get a lot done with it --  but why not learn RPG/IV and ILE
instead? It's more productive, that's where all the enhancements will
be, and that's where all the current education is focused.

As for learning it, I wouldn't confuse the issue by including the
iSeries in the mix. I know in the end she'll be connecting to an
iSeries, but what she needs to learn first is simply how to use VB and
ADO (VB.NET and ADO.NET?) to access a relational database. Once she
understands how to use the tool to develop applications, the iSeries is
just another database from her point of view. She calls a stored
procedure, simple. The fact that that stored proc is an RPG program and
it calls 10 CLs, 5 Cobol programs, uses 3 data areas, 2 users spaces and
a data queue isn't relevant to her at all -- it's a black box.

Microsoft's MSDN site (msdn.microsoft.com) is probably the best
reference out there, the only problem with it is it's huge! I didn't try
to find VB6 stuff, but if she were to start w/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/using/gettingstarted/default.aspx and
move onto
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/using/understanding/data/default.aspx
to understand data she'd have a good foundation.

Whether you choose "classic" or .NET (although it's even more important
w/.NET) you need to decide what type of applications she'll be building.
There are three main types of development in the MS world, thick-client
(WindowsForms), thin-client (WebForms), and data layer (COM/Assemblies).
If you can focus her on either Web or Windows-based development she'll
be much better off. Both environments are huge, and if she can ignore
one or the other it's much less she needs to get her head around. She'll
be learning data layer either way.

I must say that I've never been a fan of IBM's toolkit for VB. I think
it's written much too much from an iSeries programmers point of view,
not from a VB point of view. The most successful implementations of VB
to iSeries I've seen are when the VB people think of the iSeries as just
another database.

-Walden

------------
Walden H Leverich III
President & CEO
Tech Software
(516) 627-3800 x11
WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.TechSoftInc.com

Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.
(Whatever is said in Latin seems profound.)
  


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Angela Wawrzaszek
Sent: Wednesday, 19 January, 2005 08:36
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: VB and the as400

Does anyone know if there is any kind of education for Visual Basic and
the AS400.   I have a VB programmer who has been starting to write
interfaces with the as400.  She is struggling with the data type matches
and just general processing of a relational database.   She has always
worked with simple access databases.  

 

Any suggestions would be great!

 

Angela Wawrzaszek

IT Supervisor

awawrzaszek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(315) 258-4205

 

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