Re: Screen Designer in RDP

[Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From James Perkins:
> Can't say I've been very impressed with it either. Seems like it shouldn't
> be that hard to get right. It's all fixed position character based elements.
> It's also painfully slow if you use reference fields. I think Netbeans
> visual editor is far better and it creates complex Java Swing UI.
>   
I don't have any problems with reference fields.  In a window.  In a 
subfile.  No problems at all.  And comparing Netbeans to Screen Designer 
is apples to kumquats.  The Rational JSP designer is quite nice, and the 
Rich UI designer is unparalleled.  But for knocking out green screens, 
RDP works very well.

> I don't think IBM really cares and I'm not sure they really should. It's
> really not that difficult to hand-code display files and frankly they should
> probably just die off anyway. Before anyone gets too irritated with me, yes
> I realize for pure data entry it's faster, but it's still ugly. :-)
>   
Green screens also work remarkably well with scanners and RF devices.  
They're eminently suited for places where you don't want your iPad to 
go.  :)

> I will say I haven't had the problems you described though.
>   

Me neither.  I don't know, maybe I'm just used to working with the 
tool.  I usually make minor modifications in source mode and wholesale 
changes in design mode.  I switch back and forth between source and 
design modes with a single click and it works wonders for me.  Can't do 
that with SDA.

Joe