Re: Plug-ins from iSeries Vendors

In fairness, the Eclipse GUI (SWT) is unique to Eclipse.  So while a 
vendor already using Java has a leg up on say the Code Designer team which 
has to port from C/C++, rewriting your UI is still a big deal.

In Eclipse 3.0 there is a better facility for integrating AWT/Swing into 
the UI.  It will create somewhat of a FrankenUI but it will be a little 
better.  Vendors will still have to do a fair amount of work to get their 
Swing code running, but it provides a better transition option for them.

Finally, I think a lot of iSeries vendors are not convinced that WDSC will 
"take off" and are hedging their bets, perhaps hoping it will fail. 
Personally, I think it has already taken off, especially if we can judge 
by the number of new customers we are seeing, not to mention the existing 
customers that have adopted it.  In my opinion, I think when these vendors 
hope that WDSC will go away someday they are failing to see the investment 
that IBM is pouring into Eclipse.  Virtually all IBM GUI's, even 
non-development tools, are being moved onto this framework.  I do not see 
IBM walking away from it, I only see the adoption increasing.  People in 
the general marketplace are paying $2K-$4K per user to use these tools and 
we get them for "free".  We are getting a great value and the tools are 
only getting better and better.

We were fortunate in that we recognized this potential early on, and with 
the previous work we had done for our existing Windows C/S apps written in 
C++ we already had separated our business rules from the UI.  So while we 
had a lot of work to do, it also allowed us to rethink the UI and really 
get it right.  At the same time, we had a rich backend that we could very 
easily tap into without worrying about that important piece of the puzzle.

Thanks

Mark



wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 08/17/2004 04:11:59 PM:

> Stepping onto Soap-Box.
> 
> Do iSeries vendors not understand what IDE is?  Just so they know, it 
stands for 
> Integrated Development Environment.  Once again an iSeries vendor has 
released 
> something that they claim is an iSeries plug-in.  I get all excited and 
go to 
> their site.  I then get disappointed in a hurry when I find out that 
they have 
> only added 'hooks' to WDSC to access the separate GUI they already have. 
 And 
> you have to install this existing GUI to even use the 'plug-in'.  What 
part of 
> integrated do they not understand.  What erks me even more is that this 
existing 
> GUI is already written in Java. So far, I know of only one 
vendor(SoftLanding) 
> that did it right the first time by fully integrate their stuff into 
WDSC.  No 
> separate windows pop-up. GREAT JOB.  Other vendors can learn from them 
on the 
> correct way plug-ins should be created.
> 
> Stepping off of Soap-Box.


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