RE: Green screen to GUI

Hi David,

        The problem with utilizing Microsoft, from my point of view, is that 
every
few years whatever you have written for a Microsoft platform has to be
re-written.  My experience has been primarily with vb clients on tablet
computers.  Started out with win2k everything fine.  Time to expand a bit -
Oh no! all that is available for expansion is winxp.  Installed our ap and
found that certain necessary features no longer functioned under xp.
Figured out work arounds and made modifications to get it working again.
And OhBoy!  We now have two versions to maintain.  Lets See, vb6 will be
supported how long?  How many times will I have to re-address this 'solved'
problem?  The answer is - Too many!

        If I, in the future, confine my development to linux and java, then I
decide when and how to upgrade and when things need to be re-written.  Not
Microsoft.

        In my business, I have way too much to do all the time.  I certainly 
don't
have the spare capacity to re-write things for other than business
requirements.  When I write things on the iSeries they stay written for the
most part.

        The iSeries and linux have a lot in common conceptually.  Most of the
complexity is up-front in setup and initial development.  Once that is over
it just works.  Microsoft has a real easy up-front setup and initial
development.  Once that is over the complexity begins...

Just my perspective...

Regards

Rick DuVall
Systems Manager
Dealer's Auto Auction of Okc
405 947-2886 Ext:143
rick@xxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of David Delisi
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 10:54 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Green screen to GUI


First, let me just remind everyone that I work for Microsoft.

I think this has been a really great discussion about moving 5250 to GUI
and the different approaches that people have tried.

As you may be aware of, Microsoft, in conjunction with a number of
solutions from iSeries ISVs, launched the Midrange Alliance Program
(www.microsoft.com\midrange) to show organizations how to use .NET
technology in conjunction with an iSeries server.  If you go to this
home page, you will see we now offer free hands on labs for over 2 dozen
products, including Visual Basic (the current version as well as the new
VB 2005 which is being launched in November), XML for Microsoft Office,
SQL Server 2005 BI, and more.  You run the classes through browser.  It
is a great way to explore different technologies from Microsoft without
having to license or download any software.

I think the VB one would be of most interest based on this discussion. I
have worked with quite a few companies who built new front-ends for
iSeries back-ends using Visual Basic.  You will also find a number of
GUI builders which are supported by both Microsoft (via MAP) and IBM
(via the iSeries Innovation program), such as look software, LANSA and
ASNA.

I hope this helps.


David deLisi
Microsoft Corporation