Re: Opinions and experiences with ReportBro

John,

It appears to me that ReportBro requires some Python knowledge and skills.
It also appears to me that Freemarker and Jasper require comparable Java
knowledge and skills, although I admit that Marco didn't mention that.
Perhaps Marco is simply more experienced and comfortable with Python and
Java than RPG? Since Marco expressed a concern about the skill level
required for a partly RPG based solution, I thought it appropriate for me
to ask about the skill level required by partly Python and Java based
alternatives.

In regard to embedding logic within templates, I understand that some
people may prefer that. On the other hand, some people view that as a
departure from MVC architecture (i.e. placing 2-3 different types of code
in the same file). I personally prefer a clear separation of concerns, thus
keeping HTML in one source file and RPG in another.

More often than not, so called low-code solutions end up requiring code to
achieve the results required by the application, or simply can't meet all
the requirements.

Nathan



On Tue, Jul 6, 2021 at 4:03 PM John Yeung <gallium.arsenide@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Tue, Jul 6, 2021 at 4:34 PM Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I don't really see the RPG part as needing more skills than Python and

Java

alternatives. Am I missing something?

I don't think Marco mentioned Python or Java. He mentioned
libraries/frameworks which happen to be implemented in Python or Java,
but he didn't really seem concerned about programming skills at that
level.

The closest thing to programming that he seemed to be concerned about
is the logic embedded in the template itself. I believe Marco is
saying that his "end users" have sufficient skills to "program" in the
templating language (in this case, FreeMarker Template Language), and
they (the end users!) specifically like having that level of
flexibility and power at their disposal.

Now, I'm not completely sure how FreeMarker and XDocReport work
together. But I think Marco's question for you amounts to: Where in
your solution do the end users have the ability to inject logic, the
way they currently do with FreeMarker? Clearly, Marco isn't going to
make his users learn RPG (or Python or Java for that matter).

John Y.