Re: When is SEU going away? -- WDSCI-L


Hello,


I was just wondering if there are firm plans to no longer support
SEU/PDM at any point in the future?

IBM still supports S/36 environment, including RPG II. But you want themto discontinue SEU? IBM still supports the ancient /QDLS filesystem, butyou want them to discontinue SEU? IBM still supports program-describedphysical and logical files. But you want them to discontinue SEU?

I have a LOT of problems with the notion of discontinuing SEU. SEU has alot of advantages!

a) Because it runs on the system i, I can use it from anywhere withouthaving to spend the better part of a day installing software first!

I often have to fix problems from home. Or from a friend's house when I'mthere playing cards and something goes wrong with the system at night. Orfrom a hotel computer on the road. Or... or... or... the list just goeson and on. I don't always have the luxury of telling the computer owner tohave a new, high-speed PC available for me. I certainly don't have theluxury (or time) of installing a 5gb software product on every computer!



b) Because it runs on the system i, it doesn't ram Windows down my throat.

This is a BIG one for me. Very big. My primary desktop environment whereI do the majority of my work is a FreeBSD system. Who the heck is IBM totell me that I MUST run Windows? I didn't buy a System i because I wantedto use a Windows desktop!

I bought a System i because I like the System i, not because I likeWindows!

It should be up to ME to choose my desktop environment. No other vendortries to ram Windows down my throat, not even Microsoft. Why would IBM doit? Why would would IBM want to?

I can run SEU from FreeBSD. Or Linux. Or Mac. Or whatever I want to,because it runs on the System i: a platform that I choose to run. NotWindows: I platform that I choose not to run.



c) Because SEU is fast.

It may be simpler, and less feature-rich, than WDSC, but it's very quick.It takes me a blink of an eye to start up the editor and make changes.Yes, there are times when I plan to work with code for hours, and the 5minute startup time of WDSC is worth the wait.

But in the middle of the night when I need to change 3 characters to getproduction working, I don't want to wait 5 minutes.

When I'm leaving for the day, and say "oh yeah, duh..." and have to makeone quick change, I don't want to wait 5 minutes to re-start WDSC.



d) Because SEU is stable.

Last year I forced all of the programmers in my shop to use WDSC (5.1.2)exclusively for 1 month. They all learned WDSC. They all got used to it.They all complained about it crashing, every one of them. Also complainedabout weird problems with source not synching up between the PC and theSystem i. Every developer in my shop (that's 4 people) complained aboutthese problems separately and at different times.

I've received 6.0 and am working on upgrading our systems, I sure hopeit's better. But for now, we need SEU to verify that WDSC worked!



e) Because it would alienate a very large percentage of the community.

The surveys that I've seen (System iNetwork has does research into whatit's readers are doing in their shops) indicate that nearly 80% of thedeveloper community is still using SEU. Granted, there's a very highpercentage of developers who are interested in learning about WDSC, butonly a small percentage have migrated. (Though, granted, the remaining20% are extremely vocal about how wonderful WDSC is!)


To simply pull the carpet out from under everyone would be bad.

If you like this sort of "we have something new, you can't use the old oneanymore" type of business practice, I suggest you stick to Microsofttools. They do this sort of thing all the time. You'll love it.