Re: RDp v7.5

Jon

I agree that there isn't that much new in Screen Designer. My post about Joe's article - well, I believe I quoted something that said the idea of "screens" is something we haven't had. Well, we HAVE had it, as you know - and since at least 1998 in the CODE Designer. This cannot be mitigated by saying you are comparing only SDA and Screen Designer. The fact is, the concept of screens is NOT new, it HAS been around for years.

The Screen Designer might be rewritten from the ground up - but its design is very much like that of CODE Designer - I have looked at the technology preview and find it has so much of what CODE has. The interface is about the same.

There has been an argument that RDi 7.5 was a complete rewrite. Yes, perhaps under the covers. But the appearance, the interface is not all that different. And the rewrite has not justified moving to it for many folks. There have to be other factors to make it worth moving to, IMO.

Ah, but I'm tired!!
Vern

Jon Paris wrote:

On Mar 20, 2010, at 1:00 PM, wdsci-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

And to be fair, I didn't even consider CODE. I didn't consider CODE
because it's is obsolete technology. As for Screen Designer being based
on CODE Designer, sure, about the same way that RPG Free is based on RPG II. :)

While I agree with the obsolete comment Joe I think the RPG II comparison is rather unfair to the folks who built CODE Designer.

I've been working with the RDp 7.5 Designer and while it is a nice piece of work there really is very little that it offers that wasn't in CODE Designer and a few things that I find not as easy to use. In fact the only new feature I've found so far is the ability to store test data for fields in addition to the indicator setting clusters that CODE Designer had.

Certainly not as easy to switch between your program source code and the display design - but also not as east as CODE Designer when it comes to simple things like entering constants on the screen or entering data and converting it to a field.

For sure a move in the right direction - but not a quantum leap.


Jon Paris

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www.SystemiDeveloper.com