RE: RPGIII compiler vs Visual Basic

["Walden H. Leverich" <WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>This clearly says (to me, anyway), that you'll have to pay extra for
>support, and eventually they'll stop working. 

Joe,

You'll have to pay for non-security hot-fix support, but security
related hot fixes will continue to be free. Also, "support" in general
means bug fixes, enhancements, and warranty support. It's these things
that MS is dropping. "Support" has no bearing on runtime. Try getting
"support" for PL/1, Fortran, Pascal, RPGIII on OS/400. If you called up
IBM and said the chain opcode wasn't working in a RPGIII program and you
wanted them to fix it as part of your warranty think they would?

Also, the issue w/Longhorn has nothing to do w/VB running, but rather
has to do with the runtime DLL (VBRUN60.dll) being distributed as part
of the OS. If you distribute the DLL yourself it should continue to run.
Of course, the exact answer to what will and won't run in the final bits
of Longhorn can't be answered until it's released, but early betas of
Longhorn have been seen running VB apps. 

Part of the problem w/shipping the vb runtime as part of the OS is that
it then falls under the support timeline of the OS. For example, since
the vb runtime shipped w/XP and XP doesn't end extended support until
2011 MS has to support the VB runtime until 2011. Since MS has stated
that support timelines are roughly 10 years post release if Longhorn is
released in 2006 and contains the VB runtime that would require MS to
support it until at least 2016. And remember, "support" means FIX, not
RUN.

-Walden

------------
Walden H Leverich III
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.)