RE: Poll: e-RPG

This is so great to hear.  It was never my intention to "replace" any other
web interface with eRPG, just to get us RPGers comfortable with the
interface.  Then from there, Java or anything else doesn't seem like such a
giant leap.

I know, as someone mentioned, that $99 is steep for the book, but..

1.  I don't set the prices.  :(
2.  Looks like John got his money's worth.  :)

Brad

> -----Original Message-----
> From: jpcarr@TREDEGAR.COM [mailto:jpcarr@TREDEGAR.COM]
> Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2000 10:16 AM
> To: RPG400-L@midrange.com
> Subject: Re: Poll: e-RPG
> 
> 
> 
> 
> As I have stated previously on this list,   I have bought and read the
> book.   I said before that I thought Brad did all of us RPG people a
> service by writing it.   By and large us RPG people are kinda 
> ignorant of
> the browser, how it works, how it thinks,  etc.  To me the 
> real value of
> the book was to de-mystify the interface.   I now understand 
> how the HTTP
> server works, is configured and secured.     I now understand 
> HTML, and
> JavaScript better(I bought three or four books on them).
> 
> I have configured the HTTP server,  Created an Instance, and 
> have written
> numerous Intranet programs at my site using CGI-RPG.     One 
> program,  a P
> & L report program I wrote 8 years ago,   I merely changed the WRITE
> statements to the printer file to calls to the API to write it to the
> Browser !!    I would not even want to think about doing the 
> program over
> again(Price per LB, Fixed costs, variable costs, 
> contributions to margin ,
> by division, product, etc)  in an other language.    The report is now
> available to people who would NEVER sign on to the Green Screen(upper
> management)   In short,   they LOVE it !  So if you didn't 
> understand the
> significance to the previous sentences,   Let me state it.   
> The company
> leveraged an existing asset(the existing P & L report 
> program)  and made it
> available faster to more people directly !!  (also yesterday, 
>   I took an
> Actual vs Budget report and had it on the web in 3 hours!)    
> The finance
> department says that I have saved them -   GET THIS -  3 man 
> weeks a year !
> They will no longer run,  print and distribute the P & L 
> report manually.
> People will now bring it up on the browser.   If they want a 
> print,   they
> will just click FILE,  PRINT and do it them selves.   Oh ya,  
> I just don't
> put up reports,  I have done a lot of "Subfile" type stuff by 
> reading the
> DB file and putting it in a HTML table.
> 
> Let me also say that I will learn Java.   I will do other 
> things besides
> CGI-RPG in the browser.    BUT,   my fear and ignorance was 
> over came by
> doing it first in a language that I understand well.      I know where
> CGI-RPG limitations are.   I know (now) the things that I 
> could do in Java
> better.   But I would not have known them as quickly if I didn't read
> Brad's book.
> 
> For the first time since this e - #$%@  started  I am starting to
> understand the browser as well as I understand the 5250 
> interface.    That
> is no small feat.
> 
> BTW as I said earlier,   the users now have 5-10 web pages up 
> with valuable
> information(in their eyes most importantly)   while I am 
> learning this new
> interface.
> With REAL-TIME production,  sales and financial data.    Not 
> static HTML
> pages of company procedures that no one ever reads.
> 
> You can't beat that with a stick!
> 
> Does CGI-RPG slow people down from learning Java, Websphere, Net.Data,
> EJB's,  etc?    No.   It if anything it speeds up that learning.  By
> knowing CGI-RPG  you have eliminated a few unknowns and dispelled some
> ignorance.   That is goodness.
> 
> So do I like the book and CGI-RPG ?   You might conclude that.
> 
> Respectfully
> John Carr
> 
> 
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