RE: open source IBM i. was Re: From RGP to ¿Java ?

Mark,

Your post is an example of what is (imo) "wrong". You said ' the decision makers want
pretty screens, not old looking screens. '. This is the problem. Pretty is not necessarily functional. I realize that today's world is more into "looks" than "performance". It exists in nearly every facet of our lives. As Trevor would say (and I can't believe I am saying this), "we must teach ....". Somehow we need to get the decision makers to realize that "green screen" is not necessarily bad. GUI is not "always" the way to go.

The client that asked the user base which to go with ended up with a lower cost for a "happier" user community. The users were very conscious of their performance and realized that without being able to use "keyboard only" functionality their data entry would slow down.

I do believe there are times that GUI is better, but for true data entry, they have not proven to be a better ROI. Between the loss of keyboard compatibility and type-ahead features, a browser based GUI cannot keep up.


Sharon Wintermute

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of M. Lazarus
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 5:13 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: open source IBM i. was Re: From RGP to ¿Java ?

Sharon,

I'm not arguing that a GUI is necessarily
better. I tend to agree with you when heavy data
entry is required. BUT, the decision makers want
pretty screens, not old looking screens. There
is also another advantage to a GUI. It tends to
be more user friendly for novices, so there is
often less training if your shop has a lot of turnover or often uses temps.

-mark


At 5/12/09 09:34 AM, you wrote:

One point I would like to make is that not every one WANTS a GUI.

For straight data entry purposes, its much
faster to use a "green screen" style of
entry. The end user that actually "uses" the
system is not the one pushing for a gui - management is.

One client offered the users a choice, 8 out of
10 wanted the green screen. Speed of data entry
was the reason. Point and click just does not
give that to you. Most of the users used the
type-ahead feature. At that point they didn't
want the PC but it was forced on them for email
purposes. Now, they see the benefit of point
and click for some things, but straight data entry? - No.

Now granted the other 2 were casual users that
really didn't enter any data, they simply
"managed". They were the ones that wanted the
same GUI type applications they had on their desktops.



Sharon Wintermute


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Nathan Andelin
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 8:20 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: open source IBM i. was Re: From RGP to ¿Java ?

From: M. Lazarus
Have you gone on a sales call where your competition has
the GUI and you don't? I have and it's not pretty.

Your competition provides a GUI, and you
don't? It was about 1993 when we began feeling
pressure from prospects and competitors to
provide a GUI - which begs the question, what
have you been doing for the past 16 years, or so?

Waiting for IBM to fix the problem?

Nathan.




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