Hi,
Joe Pluta,
No, you've pretty completely missed the point. I primarily use EGL
as SDA for the web
Steven
Ok, but then you are not usually using it as a 4GL, (earlier I got
the impression you were emphasizing its 4GL lineage, see below)
...you are using it as a way to avoid the whole CGI, PHP, Java coding
environment that has many independent experts learning a variety of
languages.. In other words, you are not doing much generating
programs using the data dictionary and various tweaks, you are making
up for the RPG deficiency of not writing to the web (which is one
method of writing to the PC).
As an SDA for the web alternative, if it works on my QS36F data, then
I could give it a look-see. I am not asking as an adversary, but
simply to see if it is worthy of serious consideration. One of my
goals is to consider alternatives to make a degree of nice
modernization without running through a potpourri of languages. Method are:
1) full 4GL. (Lansa, Magic, WinDev and maybe others) --
2) EGL as the web communication language.
From what I can see so far these are superior, in my environment, to :
3) Open Access alternatives - (requiring RPG-ILE and external screens)
4) CGI, PHP, and any other languages combined to do the job.
You are, as I understand, saying that (2) is much more logical than
(4) since it works with an IBM supported native tool set that has
some robustness. If so, that makes sense to me.
Note: There are also some other possibilities, like simply building
modernization into limited query utilities like NGS, and leaving the
RPG alone. However, in the long run, you really want PC people to
have PC-button and pop-up and tab sorting capabilities, which is a
full language thing, at least on many programs.
So I think my 1-2-3-4, for now, is a reasonable summary. Any major
alternatives omitted ?
Joe Pluta
(although the EGL people hate when I say that). It's a little more
than that, but if all I did was to create the user interface and
call services which in turn call RPG programs, then I would be fine
with that. In many cases, though, it's faster to write the SQL
query to load the UI using EGL rather than writing an RPG program which I call.
Steven
Again, though, you are talking about the less complex applications.
Joe Pluta,
I would NEVER touch the generated code. That's just crazy talk.
Steven
Mabye in EGL. However it is not in all environments. And if the
generated code was RPG and you could modularize the enhancement, you
might consider some tweaks to the code. The fact that it is "crazy
talk" is simply an EGL limitation. Granted, some 4GLs simply do not
generate accessible code, so this is not a criticism, per se, just a
discussion. I gave the Clarion example (not really functional on the
iSeries) as a code generator that is designed for code tweaking through hooks.
Joe Pluta,
Especially since EGL does let you easily call RPG or Java to do
those things which EGL wasn't intended to do. As to the "net-PC"
interface I'd suggest reading any of my columns on EGL
Steven
Yes, that I have done.
Joe Pluta
(or even buying my book <grin>)
Steven
Sure, if we seriously begin to go that route.
Joe Pluta
which shows exactly how easy it is to call an RPG program from
EGL. EGL provides all the plumbing for your client code (written in
EGL and generated to JavaScript running in the browser) to call your
server code (written in EGL and generated to Java running on the
host) which in turn calls your RPG code running on the host. Really,
it would take longer to write a post explaining multi-tiered EGL/RPG
architecture than it would for you to write a sample EGL program. I
have always championed using EGL as the UI for business logic
written in RPG. You call it a limited function, I call it using the
right too for the job. RPG doesn't do web, EGL doesn't do MRP.
Start here with an article I wrote on the topic nearly five years
ago:
http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/ibmi/developer/rpg/Using-EGL-and-RPG-Together/
Steven
One thing I had noticed there:
"I'm not even scratching the surface of the vast capabilities of EGL
as a true 4GL development environment. The EGL team has made it
almost criminally easy to create entire applications from the ground
up, with Unified Modeling Language modeling capabilities and SQL
schema inspection and auto-generation of code - the list goes on."
That is where I got the impression that you would be trying more to
use EGL as a 4GL than as SDA-web.
Anyway, here is my question about the EGL - RPG mix.
(An example.)
Say you want to put a field pop-up (F5-inquiry) on an external file
lookup, and you want to have the lookup file able to be sorted in two
ways, number and alpha, (mouse hits the tab at top to change the
sort) ... and then to place the desired item number into the
field. How do EGL and RPG interact for such a need ?
Granted, this is a techie question, but from my perspective a lot
rides on the response.
Oh, I might have a "B" question about EGL taking data from the data
file and outputting a templated email or word document.
Steven Spencer
Queens, NY
midrange.com
