RE: RPG UI Frameworks was->RE: Fw: Enhancements to RPG

I can only HOPE it's bringing true graphics to the iSeries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then we can show the CEO, CIO and all the other alphabet soup folks
something that will catch their eyes...and their pocketbooks....


Thanks,
Tommy Holden


-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jerry Adams
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 10:01 AM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: RPG UI Frameworks was->RE: Fw: Enhancements to RPG

I read in the Business section of this morning's paper that IBM was
going to start putting the PS3 chip on "mainframes." No specifics as
top what mainframes meant, could be just the zSeries, could include the
i and, even, p.


The PS3 chip is the one that IBM and Sony developed for kick butt
graphics on the Playstation. Not being a double E myself, I'm not sure
what the actual implications for the UI on the System i5 might be. But
with the myriad of assaults (under the radar for the most part) by IBM
on M$ turf, I wouldn't be surprised if this was another one in some form

or fashion.


Or maybe it's just a graphics card.


* Jerry C. Adams
*IBM System i5/iSeries Programmer/Analyst
B&W Wholesale Distributors, Inc.* *
voice
615.995.7024
fax
615.995.1201
email
jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>



Bob Cozzi wrote:

Aaron,
Believe me, I've been a proponent of GUI with RPG for decades. Believe

me, I

drank that Kool-Aid long before you learned to drive. I welcome you to

the

on-going battle. To me, Web/Browser interfaces via CGILIB or others

are the

closest we've come to a great RPG GUI so far. The guys at eXport

Ventures did a

great graphical, event driven RPG user interface years ago--but it

didn't take

off very much.

Most of this event-driven stuff really needs an OS that can handle

dispatching

the event messages. Certainly OS/400 can do that, but it doesn't.
However, a Web/Browser interface can already do event-driven stuff via

AJAX and

regular CGI calls to RPG or any language. What would be beneficial is

the

ability to "AJAX to" a subprocedure directly rather than only to a

program. I'm

not certain if that's much better from a performance standpoint than

just

leaving a CGI program active in its A/G and reactivating it, but it

would be

cooler. :)



-Bob Cozzi
www.i5PodCast.com
Ask your manager to watch i5 TV



-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces+bob=rpgworld.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces+bob=rpgworld.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of

albartell

Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 8:04 AM
To: 'RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries'
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