RE: RPGIII compiler vs Visual Basic -- MIDRANGE-L

> From: Walden H. Leverich
> 
> 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?

Absolutely.


> 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.

But won't be supported.

Walden, you and I are disconnecting major here.  Maybe you don't
understand how OS/400 works, being as you've been ensconced in the Dark
Side for so long... if I were to take an old S/38 program and restore it
on a brand spanking new iSeries and it caused a machine check, I could
call IBM and expect a fix.

Not only that, but for the most part, I could make changes to the
source, compile it, and expect THAT to work.

Do you understand this concept?  Do you understand the incredible
magnitude of this capability compared to what passes for support in the
Microsoft world?


> 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.

And here's another difference between the philosophies of the companies.
IBM expects your old programs to continue to work, Microsoft guarantees
no such thing.  You yourself have no idea what the next release will
support, whereas I'm comfortable that my programs will continue to run
and run and run (that's also one of the primary reasons I believe in
make vs. buy, by the way).


> 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.

Says who?  In fact, I'll bet you fifty bucks right now that you will NOT
be able to run VB6 programs on any new Windows machine shipped in 2011
(let's say a Dell shipped with Windows pre-installed).  I absolutely,
positively guarantee it.  Let's pick a nice, juicy VB6 application
today, and stick it in a time capsule and see if it runs in 2011.  (You
can put it in a ZIP file and store it on an iSeries, since you know that
will still be running in 2011.)

Anybody else want a piece of this?


> 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.

Microsoft can say whatever they want, but it's just words.  I'd be
interested to know how many programs written in 1995 run on Windows XP.
I know most of my games don't.  And yet, I KNOW that programs written in
1985 in RPG will run on my iSeries, AND I can modify them and compile
them and run them today.

This just isn't sinking in, is it?

Joe