Re: Webfacing out, EGL in

Joe Pluta wrote:

What cost? Compared to what? Green screen development?

The cost of the tool.

Well, that and the fact that I would be tied to the tool.

IMO, the best way to develop a web enabled interface to an i application
would be: Hand code the RPG service programs, hand code the Java that
talks to the service programs, and hand code the JSP that drives the
user interface.

At most I would use tools that are open source and community supported
(like Eclipse) for the java components.

This way I'm not tied to any third party tool for development & debugging.

A lot of work? Yes, absolutely. But I can count on everything, back to
front because I understand it completely. Every component, action,
request, response, & result are there because of conscious decisions I made.

As I've mentioned in the past, I'm not a big fan of code generators (for
reasons I won't repeat here).

Compare this to... what? WebFacing costs as much to deploy, is harder to use, and looks like crap (sorry WebFacing folks - you know
my position on this).

Well, as I mentioned, I don't think Webfacing is much more than an
interim step.

PHP is a whole new set of software to learn, install and eventually pay for (remember, PHP is *not* free, it's only free "for now").

Huh? I was under the impression that PHP _is_ free ... especially
considering it's open source.

Anyways, EGL is as much a new language as PHP is. PHP has the advantage
of being much more widely accepted than EGL.

You know the embedded costs of a .NET solution.

Actually, I don't ... but I'll take your word on it. I don't
particularly like .net anyways (for no concrete reasons, other than it's
from MS).

Even green screen is not free. Try maintaining Client Access installations in Japan - I have a client who can tell you about those
nightmares firsthand. And of course, no GUI.

Heh, I'm in the process of learning just that :)

david