Re: WDSC 7 packaging

From: John Taylor

What has Rational brought to the table in WDSC Standard? Eclipse provides
the foundation, and the iSeries group develops the iSeries extensions. So
where has the iSeries developer benefitted from the purchase of Rational.
This is not a rhetorical or facetious question. Does anyone know what
value Rational has provided to us?

First off, the Eclipse project itself is primarily an IBM project and if I'm
not mistaken Rational developers had a lot to do with Eclipse's success.
And while I have no idea how much money on or off the books goes from IBM to
Eclipse, but my guess is it's significant.

On to your other point, though, all of the WebSphere tooling is Rational.
While you may not care about that stuff for the most part, if you plan to
use WDHT, for example, you will need the Rational components. In fact, if
you plan just about any web enabling, either through WDHT or through EGL or
through your own JSP interface, you will need Rational.

That's why I tell IBM to tread lightly: if they go a la carte for all the
web pieces and the only thing that System i developers get for "free" is the
RSE extensions, then suddenly there's a lot less impetus for System i shops
(and ISVs) to go to the web. And that is the "death knell" I keep talking
about.

Joe