SQL data access through service program per file

Hello everyone,


I was wondering if you could share your thoughts on an idea we've been pondering on. I apologise if this idea was discussed before, I'm pretty new to the mailing lists.


A colleague of mine proposed to create a service program for each new table, implementing the CRUD functionalities in SQL. We would be using the functions from the service program to access the files instead of native RPG I/O.


The arguments are that IBM is focusing its improvements on SQL, and leaving native I/O behind. Also this would separate data access from business logic and in time create a database layer. An other solid argument is that we would limit the need for creating indexes, and could construct the appropriate access paths when performance is evaluated.


However, I have some doubts for this approach. I fear that it would discourage developers to create programs starting from a joined SQL statements (program join), instead encourage sequential read operations from multiple files (program join). I feel this is where most of the performance gains can be found. Additionally, I've always thought that native I/O is more performant in retrieving a small amount of records from a file, so I thought the service programs could lead to deterioration of performance.


Any feedback on these ideas? Maybe experience in implementing something similar? Or some documentation?


Thanks in advance,

Joni