RE: IBM not investing in i5/OS was: iSociety

From: Crump, Mike

Sure they will get an iSeries shop there eventually, but it doesn't

compare to the programming stack we have with 5250/RPG/DB2/i5OS.

I can't disagree with this at all. IMHO, back in 1988 and the years
after that the AS/400 was the easiest system to program. OK, DEC had
some nice features but they don't count. :-) Now, things have changed.
One of the major issues is that IBM wants to share everything as best it
can across platforms. And even worse, most of the control or decisions
in that area are now the responsibility of someone outside of
Rochester......

Gotta get on the stump again here.

Have you guys actually tried EGL? Look, there are two ways to do things:
learn the basics and program it yourself. IBM has provided you that with
unrivaled support for JSP Model 2 for about a decade. Everybody says, "Boo
hoo hoo, Java is too hard for me, I can't do it."

Personally, I think anyone who can program in RPG and can't program the Java
side of JSP Model 2 just isn't trained correctly, but let's say I'm wrong,
Java is beyond the means of mortal men, and you just can't do it.

So IBM comes out with EGL, which is almost completely point and click. It's
got SQL access, program calls to ILE using data structures, MQ Series hooks
for other platforms, and a WYSIWYG designer that even includes business
graphics.

You can create a web page that shows a list of orders in about a minute.
Create an SQL record definition (defines the columns and tables), create a
web page, add an array of the SQL record to the web page, drop it on the
page, add the single line "get orders" and you're done.

You can then create a pie chart of your orders by state in another few
minutes. Add a new record with some group by data, create an array of
those. Add a line "get totals" and then right-click on it to modify the SQL
to group and sum how you want. Drop a chart on the page, connect it to the
array, and you're done.

There's even a wizard that will build a whole point-and-click data entry
application with four dialogs.

I don't get it. If the issue is ease of development, EGL is the answer.
What are you waiting for?

Joe