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

["Bob Cozzi" <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You mean the CELL chip? 

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



-----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
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        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
>
>
>