I for one am thankful for Joe's 'kool-aid' regarding the use of WDSCi.
Since I am one of the main ones in this debate I want to clarify my
position. I LOVE WDSC, so let's not muddy the waters with that piece of
software. Also note that WDSC allows us to continue in a direction of ROI
as it relates to RPG/DB2/iSeries. EGL doesn't do that and that is why I am
stating everyone should proceed with caution. My argument with Joe is he
isn't stating the long term ramifications of recommending such an approach
to shops that are 95% RPG. Why do I harp on that so much? I have lived
through it a good handful of times in the past 10 years and it is VERY
painful to switch language/platform directions if you don't plan it out well
and think far into the future.
In the end a lot of this comes down to a "build vs. buy" type deal. With
EGL you get to buy into a much easier approach in the initial stages. With
RPG you will inevitably be doing more on the "build" side of things simply
because the libraries aren't nearly as full featured. But as I have found
out the hard way it is much better to build many times vs. buying into a new
language/platform, because all of a sudden a huge amount of the landscape
changes.
The quote you have at the bottom of your email is a very good point: "If you
don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."
We each need to make SURE that our direction of adopting
EGL/.NET/Java/RPG/DB2 fits into a profitable longterm future for our
company. Profitable means you can build/maintain the application stack
without doubling your staff. Long term in my mind means at least 15 years.
Should someone in your shop try out EGL? ABSOLUTELY! You will learn a
ton! Joe will teach you a ton! Learning a new language is NEVER a bad idea
because it will ALWAYS enhance how you program in your mainstay language.
The important thing is how (or maybe "how much") you adopt any new
technology, knowing full well that you may not be maintaining the cool new
code you just built in 3 years. I worked in a shop of primarily RPG
developers and determined I would introduce Java/Tomcat into the picture. I
did it because it was easier to do web services that way, but unfortunately
for the company they now call on me anytime something with that process
changes because nobody else in-house has that knowledge. At that point in
time I didn't have the foresight to think about the companies long term best
interests, but rather had a lot of fun learning something new and determine
I would make it part of their software stack without putting much thought
into it.
Hope that helps to clarify my position,
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
midrange.com
