Re: DIM question (Was MOVE/MOVEL and %Scan)

Hans

As crazy as the below(Joes and Jeff's posts) sounds,  it really is a very
valid viewpoint of many of us Sys/38/AS/400/iSeries Application
Programmers. My 8 hour days for the last 15 to 20 years has been spent
writing G/L ,  A/P, A/R, OE/I , ShopFloor Data collections, Inventory,
Budget Programs and yes MRP gens.    My world is a Fixed Decimal,  Fixed
Length RDB world.  Every company I have worked for has viewed the computer
as a means to an end.

My last and I truly mean LAST desire is to port my applications and day to
day world to an other OS/hardware.
DO YOU READ THAT IBM ?

Java SW (for an example)  that can run on any OS is IBM's dream come true,
It's NOT My Dream come true.
Linux that runs on every hardware is IBM's dream come true,  it's NOT my
dream come true.

I will let you in on one more secret before I close this rant.

The customers that ARE concerned about porting their apps to another OS or
hardware platform
will become just like the other typical Intel or Linux/Unix customers.

Which is:

They don't give a flying F@#$ what the hardware it is. Compaq, Dell,
xSeries...
"Are you the cheapest?, No? then you are outta here"

Unix, Linux, Python, VB.... They will say "I have NO allegiance to you,
Next week You are Outta here"
IBM, SUN, MS..... I have NO allegiance to you. I will change from you like
I change socks.

The iSeries customer (ME) are about the last customers that would say.....
" My last and I truly mean LAST desire is to port my applications and day
to day world to an other OS/hardware.  "

And if it does come about that the iSeries disappears,  You (hans) might as
well follow Jennifer and go to work for  M$ cause they don't give a rip
what their customers want either.

Sorry for the rant but you hit an emotional nerve with this thread.

Respectfully
John Carr


> > Many RPG programmers would like to be able to port their apps to
> > other operating systems.  But matching the semantics of RPG's
> > database operations to databases on other systems is not easy.
> > The inability to easily port business applications written in
> > RPG is a major impediment to more widespread adoption of the
> > language.
> > IBM Compiler Writer.


> Your client base doesn't care about porting their applications, Hans.
This
> is the red herring mantra I hear over and over.  "It doesn't port well."
> Most people don't want to port thweir applications, Hans.  If your goal
is
> to turn RPG into some hybrid changeling that can run on a Windows box,
then
> I truly fear for the future of the language, and the future of the
platform.
> Joe Pluta:


Bingo.  Neither me nor my company has any interest in any hardware to
run our business than an AS/400 (I mean iSeries).  IBM just doesn't get
it.  What I fear most is IBM being so focused on this stuff ("porting"
"open") that IBM itself will kill the iSeries.  And when it happens, IBM
will say "See, we told you so" completely oblivious to that fact they
did it themselves.

My business is not running computers, it's running my business.  When
the iSeries disappears, I will find another line of work.  Why?  Because
I haven't heard of any other computer system besides the iSeries that
let's me focus on my business instead of running computers.

Jeff Crosby