Re: AW: Open Access to be generally available as part of the RPG compiler

hi Justin,

IMHO, you're got that backwards. Those programmers are already
mentally bound to that programming technique. RPG-OA is not the
cause of this, but a consequence.

I think you're right as far as it goes. But I think if it weren't for RPG-OA (and webfacers, refacing tools, screen scrapers, etc) people might be forced to update their skills rather than continue with this paradigm.

On the other hand... I think Henrik is forgetting that there are millions of already written programs that use the display file paradigm, and that the amount of work needed to refactor all of those programs might be prohibitive.

So, in my mind, OA is a great stop-gap solution. It's a band-aid that helps people get to a new interface quickly ans easily. But it should not be the ultimate goal.

The ultimate goal should be to write your business logic in a stateless, services-oriented, MVC manner. That way, it doesn't matter which front-end you use.

Some people think of RPG-OA as a means of separating the display logic from the business logic, in order to achieve an "MVC" application -- and the problem with that is exactly what Henrik said. You aren't writing your business and display logic separately. You are still writing your logic as if it's outputting to a proprietary interface that exists nowhere else, designed originally for 5250 terminals, that are also used nowhere else.

So that's my opinion, RPG-OA is a great short-term, quick-fix. It's better than the older technique that involves interpreting the 5250 datastream. But it shouldn't be your end-goal.

Jon Paris constantly makes the point that RPG-OA is useful for other things besides just user interfaces. He told me this more than 3 years ago, and I've been thinking about it since then. I've found one or two cases where this makes sense -- but it's extremely unusual. (And THAT is why I don't think SPECIAL files ever caught on.)

-SK