Re: TWOFA - A 2FA Two-Factor Authentication solution 100% native to the IBM i -- MIDRANGE-L

I am fully retired so I have no fight in this. To me this is Kobayashi
Maru, the no win scenario from Star Trek.

There is no right answer, IMO. You need to make a simple 1 character
change to some old fixed format code. Just change it? Or completely redo
to freeform? It depends.

Having been "the only" IT guy at the same company for 50 years it usually
was just change it . Done.

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On Sun, May 10, 2026 at 6:17 PM Jon Paris <jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I think you missed my point.

Of course, there is a lot of old columnar RPG out there. Code that has
been running for decades.

I've stated my opinion on how short-sighted I think it is to leave the
code that way many time. But that is irrelevant to this thread.

This is a _new_ package being offered. I simply expressed disappointment
at _new_ stuff being put out in such an old format.

That is all.

Jon Paris
Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On May 10, 2026, at 2:30 PM, Steve M <steven.meisinger@xxxxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

Even as I am typing this I know it's a bad idea, but I can't stop

myself.

There's a real world out there, Jon, and a lot of the leaders in our

industry, like yourself, I think sometime forget that. It's columnar RPG,
not free. It's left-hand indicators and L1/LR logic. It's O-specs and not
PRTF. It's F-specs and not imbedded SQL. It's S36 legacy. It's PF/LF
(even fixed length F-Spec) and not DDL.

Just like the millions upon millions of COBOL out there that still runs

the backbone of systems today, RPG is no different. One must accept this
as fact; like it or not. As you put it, "hard to read" or not. That you,
or someone else might write it today, or not.

Client to client, company to company, I continue to encounter this

truth. Maybe you have the luxury of being selective to the best and
brightest of code - but a lot of us, I dare to say most of us, are slugging
it through legacy day in/day out. It's what got us here - it's what keeps
the platform relevant and even in use in most cases. Without it, they'd
fold it up and close it down.

I know there is going to be a holy-war on this one; entrenched

positions, desires and beliefs, and even defiance. Sorry all, it is what
it is. That's the system. Again, no different than COBOL, so I strongly
encourage we embrace it, support it, and even write in that fashion when
the client/company says, "we want our changes to look just like the rest
and not bounce back and forth old and new." Not every company has the
time, money, or more so the desire to want to enhance/upgrade/modernize.
That's okay - as long as they keep our platform alive we should encourage
them, support them, and assist them and not battle with them over a
meaningless hill to die upon; the hill of that's older code and you
(client/company) need to upgrade it. No, they don't. It's theirs to do as
they wish.

I am prepared for the onslaught of replies back at me arguing the

opposite, but to those who do I ask you this - why argue it at all? It's a
fact. It's out there. It's staying. If you don’t like to deal with it
wherever you are today then find a different shop to work and be happy.
But as long as your shop desires the old way, help them the absolute best
you can to make them be the absolute best they can be. For that, right
there, is what makes an IBM i developer different than any other language
or platform - we want the best for our client; not always ourselves.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of

Jon Paris

Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2026 13:01
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Subject: Re: TWOFA - A 2FA Two-Factor Authentication solution 100%

native to the IBM i

Agreed but sad to see that so much of it is fixed form, though. Even the

calcs in some cases.

I know ... I'm getting old and cranky, but I really find it hard to read

fixed form calcs these days - so many years since I wrote any.

Jon Paris
Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On May 10, 2026, at 1:15 PM, Richard Schoen <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

This looks very interesting.

Regards,
Richard Schoen
Web: http://www.richardschoen.net
Email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

----------------------------------------------------------------------

message: 1
date: Sun, 10 May 2026 12:53:14 +0800
from: Vengoal Chang <vengoal@xxxxxxxxx>
subject: TWOFA - A 2FA Two-Factor Authentication solution 100% native
to the IBM i

Please reference
https://github.com/vengoal/TWOFA

--
Best Regards,

Vengoal Chang

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