Re: The real problem with the SQL precompilers (was SQL on AS400...)

Is this politics at play? It seems to me that everyone is dissatisfied with the results. The WDS developers cannot make the tools work right, ...

Politics? Not in any conventional sense other than financial - personal agendas - maybe.

and the DB2 group can't expose new features in SQL syntax, and we're stuck with this mangled mess, all because of this flawed architecture.

Sorry - I don't understand this. Since the RPG compiler doesn't handle the SQL syntax at all (it is just passed to the pre-compiler) there is only one place this has to be implemented. So if features are omitted (although I'm not aware of any) it is just a function of $ as it is all within the Rochester group's control.

Budget? Sure, I understand that $$$ must come into play, but right now, the budget is split between the WDS and DB2 groups to support the use of embedded SQL. Surely the $$$ spent by the DB2 group on the pre-processor could go straight to the WDS group. Ok, those budgeted dollars are currently just designated for product support, and would be insufficient for the development effort required, but once the rewrite is complete, the maintenance costs should decrease significantly, as there will no longer be multiple groups to spend that dough.....

100% in agreement with you - but as I said the time is past. The time to do it was when they were first planning to start spending $ of the pre-compiler and try to play catch-up with the compiler. For a number of reasons that didn't come off. Now because the annual amount being spent on maintenance/upgrades is much smaller I suspect the ROI period would be too long to make a rewrite worth considering.

Oh well, I suspect I shall have to remain disapointed with IBM on this one....

Yep - me too. I lived with this issue for a lot of years.


Jon Paris

www.Partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com