Re: Is RDi really a "new" product?

Dean, Robert wrote:

The big selling point of Rational's tools is that although they can
be used in standalone capacity, they don't require it or even
encourage it. They are designed to be co-installed. You could
install concurrent versions of RAD + RSA + RDi + RBDe and expect
it all to work. According to the announcement letter, RDi provides
System i-specific enhancements to RAD's web tools.

Starting to wander far afield here. The original issue was whether

RDi

is built on top of Eclipse 3.3. My point is that it doesn't need to

be

because it's not a web application development tool. If you are
questioning whether RAD and RSA are built on top of Eclipse 3.3, then
that's a different question for a different list, and probably not a
midrange.com list.

No, it's pertinent because RDi and RAD have specific synergy. I was
mistaken about it being explained in the announcement letter, not about
the fact that it exists. It's actually on the product announcement
page:

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/rational/announce/systems/i/?S_TACT=105A
GX15&S_CMP=LP

"Rational Developer for System i and Rational Application Developer
combination adds all the capabilities currently available in WebSphere
Development Studio Client Advanced Edition (WDSC-AE). Two separate
products enable customers to receive timely releases and updates to both
and keep Java developers synchronized across all supported platforms.
The combined solution also offers several i5/OS specific features
available from the RDi product such as the JCA Connectors, wizards and
tools to leverage the i5/OS Java Toolbox, and many other Java
technology specific features."

The pertinence of this is that the RAD 7.5 open beta that was released
in November runs on Eclipse 3.3, so it's a good bet that the product,
when it is released, will run on Eclipse 3.3, if not 3.4. Given IBM's
statement here, it would be reasonable to expect that RDi is engineered
so that it will run equally well on RAD 7.0 or 7.5, even if they don't
support it out of the gate.

So, to bring this back to the original question, RDi might not support
Eclipse 3.3 or later now, but it will have to in the near future.