On Tue, Apr 16, 2019 at 1:49 PM Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What I'm looking for are some concrete
examples of applications that I, as the manager of a traditional IBM i
shop, might want that .Net does better than other tools. I just want to
know how a shop that doesn't already have Windows developers would
benefit, because adding a new environment is not a zero-cost activity.
Gotta have that ROI! :)
The answer is, as with so many things, it depends.
On some level, there isn't much difference between the various
options, in terms of pure capability or "intrinsic advantage". In
particular, the flagship language of .NET is C#, and from far enough
away, it amounts to a somewhat newer, somewhat nicer Java, which of
course every IBM i shop already has. Are C#'s "intrinsic" advantages
over Java enough to justify introducing a new environment? Eh,
probably not (though see my next paragraph). Are there libraries or
programs available for .NET which don't have something with similar
functionality available for JVM? If we're talking third-party stuff in
the respective public ecosystems, then probably not. Or at least not
many.
But on another level, programming talent and "fit" within an
organization matter a lot, and to an individual programmer, the
differences between Java and C# could be very significant. I think
it's completely valid to give a lot of weight to personnel factors
when making technology decisions.
Personally, I can easily see .NET being for some shops what Python was
for mine. Python is in use where I work only because *I* happen to
like it and have been able to leverage it to provide value to the
company. I'm sure there are programmers similar to me out there, in
shops similar to mine, except that their language of choice is C# or
other .NET language, and now they can use it to simultaneously
increase their job satisfaction and bring additional value to their
organization. In a way, you could say Richard is an extreme example of
this.
John Y.
midrange.com
