On Tue, Apr 16, 2019 at 3:42 PM Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks, John! But respectfully that's exactly the answer I was trying
to avoid.
I know you were. But I don't think other answers are quite correct.
I don't really care so much
about the cool factor or whether it will help me recruit a 20-something
to work on my ERP package that is nearly as old as he is.
But maybe you should. ;) I don't mean caring about what's cool, but
one of the points I was trying to make was that, as a manager, you
probably should care about what I called "personnel factors". This
isn't limited to recruiting, either. The skills and interests of the
existing team matter. Even if there is a whiz-bang program in some
new-to-your-shop technology that you can "drop onto your IBM i", who's
going to maintain it? If it's your existing team, then what they know
and what they like should at least be part of the thought process, no?
And if it's not your existing team, then maybe recruiting matters
after all.
All I want is five applications written in .Net that I can drop onto my
IBM i that will make my business better - applications that are easier
to implement via .Net or simple unavailable elsewhere. THAT is what I
can use to sell the corner office on the initial expense of getting it
in-house.
I can't tell if by "application" you mean a specific piece of software
(like Rails or Apache POI) or a type of software (ERP system, Web
server). If it's something you "drop onto your IBM i" then wouldn't it
be something already implemented? Why would it matter how easy it is
to implement?
And I'm not clear why you need to involve the corner office at all if
you are just concerned about *initial expense*. The initial expense is
pretty close to zero. You can have .NET installed on your i for no
direct monetary cost, and if you are given (or know where to look for)
instructions, it will just take maybe half an hour of your time, tops.
And most of that time is simply waiting for yum to trundle along and
do its thing. It's just a few minutes of "active" time.
Honestly, since you insist on the angle of "how can this help *me*, in
*my* shop?" the answer MUST be: That depends on the needs, interests,
plans, and make-up of *your* shop.
You seem to already acknowledge that having the .NET option available
is a good thing for the platform, regardless of whether it helps *you*
in particular. And Richard has, somewhat surprisingly to me, already
conceded that there isn't a particularly compelling case to introduce
.NET to the i in *your* shop if you don't already have developers who
are using it elsewhere or are interested in using it on the i. So I
guess that really answers that. But since the cost is so low, there is
virtually no risk in trying it out either. And I think that is why
Richard was talking about ice cream. The cost of trying out .NET (and
Python and Node.js and the other RPM-based PASE tools) is not that
different from the cost of trying out various ice cream flavors. :)
Thanks again for your response!
You're welcome. I'm happy to talk about this stuff. I hope I'm not
coming across as purposely being difficult.
John Y.
midrange.com
