Re: Costco still on IBM i?

As if other platforms are any better...

Companies pay MILLIONS to SAP, for both implementation (which never ends) and software maintenance.

SAP Rented out the Entire Disney Hollywood Studio for their conference Last year.  This year, they Rented out the Entire Disney Epcot.

Gavin.

On 5/23/2025 6:16 PM, Roger Harman wrote:

At a previous employer, after we were acquired, the new parent was blown away at our S/W maintenance costs. JDE, S2K (now, Infinium), Island Pacific, and a couple of others.

"Why are we paying *annuities* to these software guys? Can't you fix it if it breaks? Isn't that what we pay YOU for?".
OMG.... At one point I had to *convince them* to pay for payroll software maintenance - for 6000 employees paid bi-weekly!.

The systems they had in place were all home grown and primitive. Their GL had 4 or 6 tables as I recall and allowed for one-sided entries to help balance.

Roger Harman
COMMON Certified Application Developer - ILE RPG on IBM i on Power




-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L<midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Jeff Crosby
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2025 3:05 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Costco still on IBM i?

*"For every Rob and Marco, who are fortunate to work for companies that
embrace cutting edge, see IT as a strategic asset, and are willing to
enhance their apps to move to GUI, there are hundreds (thousands?) that see
the IT group as a "utility" that is there strictly to keep the lights
on.Simply telling everyone to move off green screen and jump into a browser
interface is not going to make it happen for the majority - either from a
budget/manpower aspect or a corporate philosophy - which are intrinsically
intertwined."*

Amen brother. Just keep the lights on and don't cost us anything. I have
worked here for 51 years as of today. 40+ years I had a programmer working
under me. The company owners balked at paying for a second programmer. So
I found ProGen Plus for FAR less. Within 3 years they were complaining
about the cost of that software. IT has always been an expense. Never
mind that we cut employees by 40% over the years.


On Fri, May 23, 2025 at 5:51 PM Infodorado InfoDorado via MIDRANGE-L <
midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

+1! --I wish.. Some companies (like mine) have too much "legacy code" and
think having budgets means you can't do such an immense overhaul of all
that old code. The company I work did a couple of years of having people
modernize old code, but only when an assignment brought a program across
your screen.

Another programmer said he thought they should just assign a few to
modernize the code. I agree with that. Sure it's lots of code but they went
with a third party implementation. It didn't cover everything so they got a
discount to help the vendor add the missing funcionality. Projected time to
finish was 10 years. (They started out saying 2 years hahahaha--been there
done that)..

Sometimes I wonder how many machines are still on "i". This company's new
software is not on the "i".

It's a big company, but they're not going to renew the RDi license. IBM is
pricing itself out. Best thing they did was adapting open source.

I will be glad when patents and copyright gets put to death.

--Alan

On 05/23/2025 12:20 PM EDT Marco Facchinetti <

marco.facchinetti@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I can't believe you people are still talking about 5250.

Please, let it fade away.

Best regards
--
Marco Facchinetti

Mr S.r.l.

Tel. 035 962885
Cel. 393 9620498

Skype: facchinettimarco


Il giorno ven 23 mag 2025 alle ore 17:17 Vern Hamberg via MIDRANGE-L <
midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> ha scritto:

++++1

*Regards*

*Vern Hamberg*

IBM Champion 2025<cid:part1.bTQfoxy4.a7pX3lS3@centurylink.net> CAAC
(COMMON Americas Advisory Council) IBM Influencer 2023

On 5/22/2025 10:02 PM, Robert Roland via MIDRANGE-L wrote:

One prime example I see of this is the web apps I work on every day

- we

don't pay attention to tab order, or any concessions to rapid data

entry. I

personally find the green screens faster to work with, like CLIs on

UNIX.

This seems to be borne out of focusing on the aesthetics of the GUI,

vs

the actual usability.

Ugh.

- Rob

On Sat, May 17, 2025, at 4:56 AM, Infodorado InfoDorado via

MIDRANGE-L

wrote:

The trick is to keep USERS in mind when you do a graphic type

interface. The green screen forces the developer into coding in a way

that

has a shorter learning curve for new users. You can do web pages that

way

but that takes more developer or management discipline.

--Alan

On 05/16/2025 6:41 PM EDT Jack Woehr via MIDRANGE-L<

midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm 100% with you on those insights, Roger.
I mentored a young fellow, 31, who had boot-camped his way into web

development at 29.

He was sad. "I wasted 7 years after college before finding web

development," he sighed.

"What did you do in those 7 years?" I asked.
"I worked in oil & gas in Louisiana. What should I do to boost my

career now?"

I told him, "Go back to Louisiana. I've done development for oil &

gas. They can find developers, but their challenge is finding

developers

who understand oil & gas!"

He took my advice and is doing quite well today.

________________________________
From: MIDRANGE-L<midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf

of

Roger Harman<roger.harman@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Sent: Friday, May 16, 2025 16:32
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion<

midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Subject: RE: Costco still on IBM i?

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do

not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and
know the content is safe.

I have always had the opinion that the IBM I programs/interfaces

were

done by people with more real-world experience - having worked in

whatever

industry or similar. That gives you more insight into what is needed

to

perform the function(s).

Again, just my opinion but I think most of the web stuff is

designed

by people who never worked a retail counter, dealt with inventory, etc.

Roger Harman
COMMON Certified Application Developer - ILE RPG on IBM i on Power



Jack Woehr
Independent Consulting Programmer

303-847-8442

jack.woehr@xxxxxxxxxxx

http://www.procern.com/

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*Jeff Crosby*
Senior Vice President
UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
830 Hayden St
Ft. Wayne, IN 46803-1142
260-422-7531
direct.dilgardfoods.com

The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the opinion of my
company. Unless I say so.
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