Re: what could have been - include HTML in the 5250 data stream

I think you should forget about the 5250 data stream and go to web.

IBM stopped improving the 5250 because web is a better option, there have been important improvements in the last few years regarding the i as a web server. One of the newest improvements allows you to use the web as a "file" in RPG.

Using CGIDEV2 you do your html in a separate source member, just like DDS, and the program logic in RPG, COBOL, JAVA, PHP, Phyton, REXX, or the language you like best.

Html 5 is adding a lot of features to catch up with the last few things tha could be donne better in "native"

An remember, the tendency is to go to movile devices, where web is King.
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Steve Richter wrote:

What would be the advantage or use compared to the various ways to
get the 5250 data from/to a web page ?

I am asking if there could have been a growth path for 5250 that would have
taken us to HTML like capabilities? The first step being to break 5250
out of the 24x80 box it was in. Send instructions to change the font. All
within the record format structure of a DSPF. Then you are adding CSS and
Javascript. Transitioning to CGI or something more expansive than a dspf
rcdfmt for the response data coming from the device. To put it another
way, if the as400 and 5250 had been the only client/server protocol in use,
there was no HTTP, would the 5250 protocol have been able to be morphed
into something like HTML?

I have always been curious what happened to IBM when the AS400 was at its
height of use. IBM had invested a lot of money in developing the S/38 and
AS400. Great progress had been made. Release after release for about 15
years had added great features to the system. Did the system just come to
the end of what was possible with ILE, with 5250, with the integration of
the database with the system?