RE: opinions on "good news/bad news"... picking Websphere or MS .ASP or .NET

Hello Dave, 

There are many choices and I've worked with a smattering of most of the 
current environments, but it typically boils down to two main choices:

Java or .Net

I use both environments but favor the Visual Studio .Net environment when 
I need to get cool interfaces out very quickly. 

Here's my short two cents.  Take it for what it's worth. 

1.) Websphere/Java Dev

Longer rampup and learning time.  (Typically limited to web development, 
web services or clunky GUI interfaces. )

WDSC/Eclipse takes more getting used to than Visual Studio env. 

Can do web services, but the environment setup can be a pain.

That being said, our enterprise workflow engine is written in Java and it 
works well, but the Java development environment is not always for the 
faint of heart. 

2.) .Net Development 

Awesome Windows GUI app development tools

Choice of C#, VB or J# for languages in the environment. 

Can also use Java libraries with IKVM interfaces.  Ex: You can use JT400 
API's for queries, program calls, record level access etc... (We've 
written a cool, high level .Net wrapper for the JT400 Java toolbox.)

Can compile code to Java binaries that can be run directly on iSeries 
(using Mainsoft - http://www.mainsoft.com) or any other box that runs Java 
binaries. 

Can write a base web service in less than 60 seconds.  OK, maybe 120 
seconds the first time :-)

Bottom line is that the Visual Studio Environment is easier to learn for 
most developers in my opinion, however I've been coding with VB much, much 
longer than Java so I still have a bias even though we do a lot of cross 
platform development too. 

Another plus for the .Net side is the Mono open source project where you 
can code .Net that runs cross platform. 

Hope this helps. 

Regards,
Richard Schoen
RJS Software Systems Inc. 
"Providing Your....iNFORMATION NOW!"
Email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web Site: http://www.rjssoftware.com
Tel: (952) 898-3038
Fax: (952) 898-1781
Toll Free: (888) RJSSOFT

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message: 4
date: Fri, 07 Jul 2006 11:22:51 -0700
from: "Dave Odom" <Dave.Odom@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Opinions on "good news/bad news"... picking Websphere or MS
                 .ASP or .NET

Gang,

Is this the proper forum to ask about comparing/contrasting starting
Web development against the i5 in Websphere vs. MS .ASP or .NET?   We
can go either way as we have both environments even though some here
lean toward the MS environment because they don't like IBM and because
MS has been "marketed" better and seems to have a better set of
development tools (ease of development, learning curve, etc.).

Our web applications development has started out slow and limited as
there's not much skill here to build anything more than simple web site
pages and some .ASP applications getting/sending data to the i5.   So,
I'm concerned about "ramp up" time (creating the environment, learning,
getting productive) to do some simple apps that display results of
queries (multi-row displays like reports users can scroll through), some
single row display, insert and update.  Of course, I expect the typical 
insatiable "need" for more function/feature over time.  Development will
not be in RPG so we don't have to worry about that added learning curve.
 Most i5 apps are "turn-key" vendor apps and while in RPG, we will not
develop skills in this area. 

So, opinions please on both development environments vis-a-vis, ramp
up, short and long term directions, what it takes to set up a Websphere
development/support environment vs. MS and any "tid-bits" you all would
care to offer.

Thanks in advance,

Dave