Re: Problem updating Rational Developer for System i for SOA Construction

Joe Pluta skrev den 23-04-2008 21:44:

Aaron Bartell wrote:

The possibilities with that type of a framework would be
endless and would also keep shops from having to learn a second full fledged
language like EGL.

I'm going to stay out of this discussion about what should be done, because I think you and Thorbjorn are a little bit nutty. He talks about using only open source yet he uses the OPM COBOL compiler and you complain about learning EGL yet the amount of work required to do any of your options is ridiculous.

I beg your pardon? I said that we are an OPM Cobol + Java shop, and that I only do Java, plus that it was my _personal_ opinion that it was important that the toolchain was open source.

As I only do Java this is actually the case. The Eclipse compiler is fully open source and javac is getting there, but as ecj is embeddable and distributable it is winning over javac. It is not a matter now, but it used to be when the scenario of Microsoft buying Sun and shut down Java - No downloadable JDK's/JRE's - no new licenses - nothing - was a worst case scenario you had to deal with when choosing technology. This has all changed.
Compare this with the .NET technology. It had - maybe still do - the posibillity to sweep Java out of the field if Microsoft had prioritized getting good basic runtimes on the competing platforms (but without the crown jewels which would only be within IIS), but after Novell made a patent deal with Microsoft, nobody in their right mind would touch mono.
But I digress.

The situation that I have in the back of my mind is what happened to OS/2. The same thing could happen to the i. Or a part of it.

But I have to respond to this: "...having to learn a full fledged second language..."? Give me a break. EGL is the easiest language in the world to learn - most of the work is done for you! It's more abstract than anything .Net has to offer, and certainly far more user-friendly than Java or PHP or even RPG. You right-click and say new Service, fill out the wizard, check the box that says "deploy as web service". You get a skeleton where you can write your functions. A library is even easier; right click and say New Library, and you get a skeleton where you can add library functions.

User friendlyness is in the eye of the beholder. I personally have a nagging feeling whenever I see a wizard for "Why is it necessary to have a wizard"? What is hidden to me? How badly will this bite when we have a production issue?

I have given up on the web service wizard in WSDCi - I simply cannot make it work with a Tomcat container. That is one of the nasty wizards because you have no idea what happens underneath. Either the magic works or it doesn't and you have no idea why.

In fact, I'll say this: if you can't learn EGL, then you better stay away from ... well, anything else! Because if EGL is too hard, I guarantee that RPG/PHP/Java/Pascal/Ada/SNOBOL is too hard.

Naturally you can learn EGL. The question is why should you? Is the effort required to learn it well enough, justified by doing so? Can your colleagues step in for you when you are on vacation in case of a customer issue?

You probably say yes, I probably say no.