Re: iSociety Fireside Chat recording available?

Jon Paris wrote:

>> Are you saying that you don't recommend RDi and CODE over SEU and SDA? That's odd; I thought you have been advocating CODE for a long time, and RDi is of course light years ahead of SEU. I'm relatively certain that RDi will include CODE Designer, or did you hear otherwise?

I'm not going to comment on this slight on the list Joe. I will simply say that I didn't say or suggest any such thing.

I inferred something from your staements and asked if that's what you meant. That's not a slight, it's a clarification. And in fact, from reading your comments, you still recommend ADTS. I'm just trying to get your opinion on record here. I have a specific opinion: unless there is some feature in ADTS that you absolutely cannot live without, then you should switch to RDi. Do you agree or disagree?

As to what's missing - well you've mentioned the speed issue - so I won't belabor that.

"The speed issue" only rears its head on large source files.

The biggie for most people is DFU. A lot of people use it for quick file views and updates etc. Since WRKDBF won't move to V6R1 my guess is it will get more use in future. Where's the equivalent? The data viewer is OK - but unless RDi updated it you can't use keys/RRNs to move around and it is display only - no updates.

This is an interesting issue. The fact that WRKDBF isn't going to work is a problem, and I hope actually that most of it will work. I haven't run an ANZOBJCNV on it to see what won't work. I think it's only the UNDEL portion that is suspect, but I might be wrong. But the fact that WRKDBF won't work is not an RDi issue, it's more of a i5/OS issue, but it does bring the ugly specter of UPDDTA back to life. Heck, the end of ADTS would be a blessing if only because it removed UPDDTA from the map...

The other option of course is just about any SQL editor, including Quantum DB, which plugs relatively well into WDSC. There are some bizarre situations where SQL tools don't work, but they are a miniscule percentage of the real world.

Another one is SQL prompting in the editor. You can't do it in RDi.

This may be the biggest one for SQL programmers. I believe you and Susan brought this up at the meeting, and I think George said they would look at it. I'm glad you brought it up again here, because I'll be interested to see what the list thinks about SQL prompting. Personally, I don't use it, but I'm sure others do.

Using Code Designer to meet the gap of a print designer is OK - but it hasn't been tested on Vista and IBM have no intention of doing so and will not support it there. It is also still somewhat buggy - but the chances of IBM fixing it are pretty slim.

I couldn't care less about Vista. I don't recommend Vista to a single client. I care more about Linux, to be honest. But I think we can agree on one thing here - the faster they get Screen Designer done the better, and then they need to look at replacing RLU as well.

As to opinion - we disagree. But then we knew that before we started.

Personally I think that allowing people to use the appropriate tool for the job is a far better way of moving them forward than forcing them to use a tool that as yet is not quite up to doing the whole job. That will just make them pull their heads into their shells.

My point is that I disagree with your statement that RDi isn't ready for prime time, with the exception of Screen Designer. While there are some missing bits, I say there are PLENTY of developers, such as myself, who can use RDi all day without ever having to use ADTS. Those programmers should switch to RDi now. If on the other hand you need green screen tools such as DFU, then you should use the green screen tools. If you want to move to RDi and do without those older tools, you should make sure to push IBM to provide equivalents.

And finally, if you insist on using both sets of tools, then it's simple: pay for both sets.

Joe