Re: EGL in WDSC 7 vs EGL in RDi

Nick Arndt wrote:

I have a quick question about EGL in WDSC vs RDi. Can any one tell me what
has changed/improved in RDi for EGL/web development? Or could I get a link
to where this information could be found?

This is where it gets a little confusing. EGL is not part of RDi. EGL is only part of RDi-SOA, which is actually RDi plus the new standalone RBD offering. Prior to the new offering, EGL was first included with WDSC V6, and then got "unbundled" but was available as an additional plug-in to WDSC V7 (this was RBDe, the Rational Business Developer extension).

As of version 7.1 of the Rational tools, there are really three distinct products that are "available" to the System i community (four if you count HATS). RDi contains RSE and LPEX, the GUI versions of PDM and SEU. RBD is the standalone tool for EGL development. And RAD contains pretty much everything else that used to be in WDSC, especially things like Java and J2EE development.

So, with RDi there is no EGL. But with RDi-SOA you get RBD 7.1 which is really a huge release compared to version 7. I can't tell you what's in it, but the last public word I heard was that it's coming to GA at the end of March. I can tell you that the EGL team has worked *very* hard to consider the System i community in its development phases. There are still some rough edges, but it's clear that they understand the specific business proposition that the System i addresses. Of course, that might be at least partly to my being on the beta team (and you can guess how fun *that* was for the EGL developers <grin>).

And as cool as EGL is today, it's getting better. There is a technology preview coming with RBD 7.1 that's going to blow your socks off.

Joe