Hi ,
Spot on Michael. Joe: Your postings here are always worth a read but on RDi I'm afraid we're inhabiting different P-groups.
Our house is already moving to MS and 'stabilising' WDSC is likely to validate the decision to do so in the minds of the decision makers. I'm the 'early adoptor' in our company but I have only managed to persuade one of my colleagues to use WDSC while the other 5 are on Green screen. The main stumbling block is speed but functionality is in there too. WDSC is top notch if you're developing and source will be open for an extended period of time. If you are trying to solve a problem however, green screen is king - WDSC cannot display/edit source, library lists, object descriptions, data, etc. anywhere near as quickly and efficiently as green screen. And then there's UPDDTA....! Eventually, when we're all on 100Gb networks, the speed won't be an issue but until then...
We still use predominantly RPG400 as this was used to write our heritage ERP system. Converting RPG400 to RPG/ILE would appear to be a no brainer in terms of effort but we would need to test all functionality and that is too big a project/cost to contemplate. We did use RPG/ILE to write CGI but got no traction in the marketplace so we maintain but don't develop that side of things. Our customers' users are happy with green screen - it's the buyers who want GUI. That now means we get hit with a double whammy of having to buy both compilers to maintain our heritage systems!
I don't agree that we got WDSC for free - we've paid through the nose for the iSeries for many years supposedly, in part, because the development tools and compilers came with it. Now that the latest sales whizz kid has got his go at running the iSeries division he's changed the rules and we're being asked to pay again. Will there be a corresponding reduction in server prices now that we're not getting the development tools?
Finally, I've tried on numerous occasions to establish communications with IBM regarding development requests but I don't think its possible from this side of the world! I've been told that the customer number is not valid although it is, that it's not the responsibility of the department/division I've been put through to and no they don't know who's responsibility it is, that we don't have the necessary licence even though the payment for same is taken by IBM every year. I've also completed development requests (using a customers number) and never heard anything again. We've even had the situation where we couldn't report a problem because IBM had booked our machine against the wrong customer - and it only took 12 months to resolve that one! Oh and because we bought a development machine from IBM we didn't pay the full price so we were not entitled to full support!
So I'm paying top dollar for a machine/tools for which I can't ask for enhancements and now I'm going to have to pay more to run the tools for which I've already paid as well as continuing to pay top dollar for the machine. And we wonder why shops like mine - over 20 years on iSeries - are moving to windows?
Regards,
John Minihan
Colman Computer Services Ltd. | Cork Road | Fermoy | Co. Cork | Ireland
+ 353 (0) 25 32211 phone | +353 (0) 25 31089 fax | www.colman.ie
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-----Original Message-----
date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:07:04 -0500
from: MichaelQuigley@xxxxxxxxxx
subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] ADTS V6R1 - No SEU updates?
wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 02/14/2008 11:39:02 AM:
date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:33:24 -0600
from: Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] ADTS V6R1 - No SEU updates?
. . .
. . .
. . .
And really, it's not a mixed message. WDSC is done. Get over it. It
was a bad decision to give all that functionality away for free and IBM
is fixing it, painful as it is to everyone . . . .
Yea, quite possibly most painful to IBM and the System i community. It
just might be the final push to MS-development tools. For instance
because of our nonprofit status, we can buy the entire license to Visual
Studio for less than the annual software maintenance looks like it's going
to be for RDi let alone RDi-SOA. As a nonprofit, the cost of the tools is
always going to play a big part in decisions. In this case, I have to
side with Jon--SEU getting updates that WDSC won't sends a terribly mixed
and potentially frustrating message.
Joe, as a side note I usually really enjoy reading your posts to this list
(and anywhere else you write). However, "Get over it." probably is going
to evoke the same kind of feelings/responses as the "RTFM"-type comments
have. People may get over it by going over to the other side--i.e.,
MS-development. I thought I ought to bring this up because I wouldn't
have posted anything in this thread if it weren't for the above quoted
paragraph.
BTW-I am preparing a note to Sam Palmisano on his complaint web page. I'm
just making certain I have the numbers right from our purchase/payment
history. It can be *really* disconcerting to look at how much we've paid
for the tools. Maybe Rational didn't see any of that, but that's IBM's
bad decision. To have shops like ours make up for their "bad decision" is
just another bad decision. Instead they should reallocate some of the
money they've already gotten from us.
Okay, there's my opinion.
midrange.com
