Anyway, I'm quite tired. I really didn't think this would be so
difficult a question.
You've asked several subtly different things. Some of those things, to
me, are a bit contradictory. The answers you've already received do
address certain aspects of your questions.
I want something, anything, that I can drop in. I don't want to become
a .Net developer, I want to be able to take advantage of the vast array
of pre-written libraries that everyone is talking about. All I want to
know is why I would use .Net rather than the same things available in
Python or Java.
Well, there are already a few things to unpack in that paragraph, but
to address the last sentence:
You would choose a .NET library over an equivalent Python library
because the .NET one is likely to be faster executing. The .NET
library might also be a little faster than an equivalent Java library,
but the difference would be much smaller, assuming you're using them
both as efficiently as you can. (A classic example of NOT using a
library as efficiently as you can is the way many or most RPGers use
POI. Lots of little calls to Java from RPG is going to incur a lot of
overhead, to the point where it's even slower than just doing the
whole thing in Python.)
But as much as you want a simple, pat answer, I don't think it's as
simple as that, because to take the best advantage of a library, it's
helpful to be able to do at least a little bit of programming in the
implementation language, because most libraries don't have a
ready-made interface to CL or RPG.
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.
I've asked very specifically for what would help my shop: pre-written
libraries that would help make my existing RPG applications better.
No, you actually never mentioned that before now. Here are some of the
things you've asked:
brief list of the top 5 benefits of .Net over all of the other options we have on the IBM i
What about the .Net environment intrinsically benefits me as a developer? Why would I (Joe Pluta) want to take the time to broaden my .Net skills?
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.
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
Those are all direct quotes. None of them mentions RPG. One of them
even asks (essentially) why you would want to *develop* in .NET (even
though later you seem to take that off the table).
The latest incarnation of your question implies that you want to
interface the .NET libraries (or "the same thing" in Python or Java,
or perhaps others) with RPG code. And that is its own topic. It's
discussed often on the open source midrange list and on Ryver. The
video presentation which started this whole thread in the first place
gives a couple of links toward the end for some of Richard's
interfacing work, and samples to give a taste of how one might use
.NET on the i:
https://github.com/richardschoen/monoonilibrary
https://github.com/richardschoen/monoonisamples
Some further attempts you made to distill what you're after in a
response you gave to Richard:
the majority of my work
is KBR (keep the business running). The sliver that's left is dedicated
towards new things that will help my team of developers. For example,
*INZSR for a service program is huge, so I've spent a lot of time on
that. I'd devote the same time to Mono if I could determine how it
would help my business.
I
just wanted to know how Mono could help my shop, and maybe some others
who, like me, don't have as much time to do "cool stuff" just for the
fun of it.
I'm not unsympathetic to your situation. I'm kind of unsympathetic to
the way(s) you've been asking your question, though. ;)
If you are that crunched for time, I think it should be you who is
telling us what you need or want, not us telling you what we have on
offer. We don't know your team. You said you want to help them. OK,
help them with what? Where are they lacking? What are their pain
points? What are their interests?
Because of the state of the open source world, we could list literally
thousands of packages, and maybe you would not be interested in any of
them. Or you would be interested in hundreds of them, and you already
said you don't want an overabundance of choices.
So I think we should do this in the other direction. What
functionality are you looking for? Odds are extremely good that we can
point you to something that provides it, or at least brings it much
closer.
John Y.
midrange.com
