Re: Moving from Green screen app to GUI because of push back

Tim,

I was discussing this subject recently with a very respected member of this group. We were both confused how turning over a crucial, and I do mean crucial to the longevity of the system, piece of creating a modern UI is turned over to third party vendors instead of being fully integrated and included in the OS.

Some vendors have done an admirable job creating a product, but IMHO, it's ridiculous to have to pay a large bundle extra to get what should be included and easily integrated into the system. It is also more expensive to develop using (at least) some of these tools. My estimate is at least 25% longer to develop and test.

I have three clients that are jumping ship to a PC based platform, another that has already gone in that direction (they used to have the largest AS/400 config in the US northeast (which included 14 AS/400's) and another is in the midst of moving part of their operation to a PC based cloud system. I haven't heard of a new member to the midrange fold in a long time. I would imagine that they exist, but I think that 20+ years after the GUI became popular, for IBM not to include this required functionality, plus the GUI development tools as part of the base OS, is just plain foolish.

No offense to the tool vendors, but I believe that this functionality is best integrated at a low level in the OS, not as a generic API in order to get the best integration, debugging and performance.

-mark

On 12/12/2017 10:44 AM, Tim Rowe wrote:

Yes!! Moving from Green Screen to a Mobile or Web based interface is
being requested by many. Not just your either. In todays world its really
becoming a necessity. That is one of the reasons that the IBM i team has
been investing in Open Technologies that are being created to interface
with our existing back end programs. Its why we have REST Api engines that
are delivered with the operating system. To allow our IBM i customer to
move in to this 'normal' world. Not only do we have many options that
allow you to do the work, we have a wealth of great ISVs that provide
tooling to help you make this transition in a fraction of the time while
in many cases leaving your existing code virtually untouched. If you are
interested in getting a view of some of these ISV, please send me a note
and I can get you a list.

Or if you need more info on the options in the Open world for IBM i,
please let us know.
Tim

Tim Rowe, timmr@xxxxxxxxxx
Business Architect Application Development& Systems Management for IBM i
IBM i Development Lab, Rochester, MN
(507) 253-6191 (Tie) 553-6191

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/i/are/index.html



message: 2
date: Tue, 12 Dec 2017 12:19:29 -0300
from: Raul Jager<raul@xxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: Moving from Green screen app to GUI because of push back
from younger employees?

Go ahead with the change.? Go to web.

We began the change 20 years ago. Some user where against the new
interface, and we had to restrict the green screen, but when we put it
back on, the users stayed with the web.

Once we learned to use the web, none of the programmers wanted to do any
more green screen programs.? The web gives a lot of resources , and
frees from the limit in the size. You can replace one program at a time,
and run "hybrid". Usually, by replacing just a few programs you will
take most of the work to the web.

We use CGIDEV2.? It replaces the "screen" with a "mask" in html and the
RPG logic remains very similar.? (assuming you have small - one task
each - programs)
A good web designer can do the "presentation" without knowing RPG, and
you can use it with minimal web knowledge.? Basic html is simple, but
not spectacular. Even so, it is better than green screen.

On 12/12/2017 11:04 AM, Ken Meade wrote:
> I had a request to update our interface from a green screen
application to
> a 'more modern GUI' because of an inability to keep new employees
because
> of the look/feel of the green screen apps and the ability to more
easily
> train them if the look/feel was something they were more familiar
with.
>
>
>
> I'm just curious if others have run into this as a reason to
'modernize'
> their applications.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ken Meade
>
> Director of Information Technology | kmeade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
> 603.444.3570 |
>
> 1309 Mt. Eustis Road, Littleton, NH 03561
>
> microsoft windows sharepoint services logo
>

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