Oh yeah Aaron - I see it loud and clear! I think most of us do. The
question is - does IBM?
Is anybody telling IBM this is what they want? I don't see many people
asking for RPG UI frameworks on the lists (actually I haven't seen ANYBODY
ask for this - might just be the posts I do/don't read). Obviously that is a
small sector to base my "not seeing" on, but none-the-less I see very little
from the RPG community on this point as I don't think many have experienced
what other frameworks have to offer (that's not a put down, just reality).
I am also guessing that the RPG compiler team doesn't have the resources to
pursue something like this. They COULD get the resources if the customer
base screamed loud enough about what our requirements are. In the past the
RPG community has screamed for GUI and they gave us VARPG and WebFacing
(yuck on both accounts). Now that we know IBM can't read our minds we need
to be more specific about what a true RPG UI framework would involve (or
more importantly, what it wouldn't involve - Java).
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [
mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of jstevens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 8:10 AM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: RPG UI Frameworks was->RE: Fw: Enhancements to RPG
Oh yeah Aaron - I see it loud and clear! I think most of us do. The
question is - does IBM?
Jeff Stevens
Mize, Houser & Co. P.A.
913 451 1882
JStevens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"albartell" <albartell@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: rpg400-l-bounces+jstevens=mizehouser.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx
04/26/2007 08:04 AM
Please respond to
RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To
"'RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries'" <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
cc
Subject
RPG UI Frameworks was->RE: Fw: Enhancements to RPG
<Cozzi said>Class (5) items are similar to class (3) items in their
importance. Sure it would be cool to have, for example, integrated CGI/Web
built-in functions in RPG IV, but that would have been important in 1998,
or
2002 or 2004 or 2006. In 2008 and beyond it is sort of like adding Pointer
Support to CL in 2006. Why do I care? I've already coded all the CL I'm
ever
going to code. By 2008 or 2009 I've already written tons of CGI/Web stuff
using xTools, CGIDEV2, or Brad's eRPG library or even using the CGI APIs
so
why would I care? (CGI/RPG is just an metaphor here.)
<Aaron responds with>
Bob, I don't think you are recognizing the significance of why people are
leaving in droves off of the iSeries. They aren't leaving because RPG is
a
bad business logic language. They aren't leaving because the iSeries is
an
unstable platform. Many are leaving because of look and feel - plain and
simple. The cost to get to that new look and feel on the iSeries is
simply
more expensive than going to .NET (at least initially).
The reality of the matter is that most, if not all, of the CGIDEV2
equivalents out there are simply one step above doing raw CGI. If I had
not
worked with frameworks in PHP and Java then I would be standing right next
to you with what you are saying, but there is a lot to be said about a
solid
and easy to use Web/GUI thick client framework. Having to write less
plumbing saves a lot of time (i.e. look at CHAIN vs. SQL single record
SELECT).
As I said in another post awhile back, RPG is fairly well suited for an
event driven UI framework because of procedure pointers and callback
capabilities. Just think if there was an RPG "router" program that front
ended your RPG program that had business logic and screen flow code. Every
time an event (e.g. specific customer selected from an HTML table)
occurred
it would send the current form to the RPG router program on the server.
The
router program would then gain entry into your RPG program by way of
procedure pointer (see example code below).
D cust_listselect_event...
D PI
D pSessUId 15P 0 Value
D pEvtTyp 10 Value
D pUIObjNam 50 Value
D cstNum s 10u 0
/free
cstNum = RPGUI_getSelectedRowUnqId(pSessUId);
RPGUI_addControllerParm('EditCust': cstNum); // Priming next
screens
input values
RPGUI_displayScreen('EditCust');
/end-free
I am debating whether to pursue that thought with a full prototype. Does
anybody else see the potential that I am seeing?
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
midrange.com
