Re: [WEB400] Re: CGI URL

[Anton Gombkötö <gombkoetoe@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> I agree!  But strictly speaking, it's not really *my* job to teach
> iSeries programmers how to properly code RPG CGI programmers.
I didn't want to express that... ;-)

A warning voice pointing at bad programming manners is worth a lot!

> There are others who've taken on that particular role.
>
> But in this particular case, I *have* offered some code to the RPG
> community. Check out this tech tip at the MCPressOnline site:
> http://www.mcpressonline.com/mc?50@251.uUecaBRpXUy.3@.6ae37704
LOL, i had to register and this application is behaving really funny,
too... Perhaps someone should tell them... ;-)

Thanks for that; it's a really good example of how things should be done -
looking at RPG and web.

> I suppose what I'm really bitching about is this: Why aren't the RPG
> CGI experts pointing out the need to be concerned about issues like
> escaping text in HTML documents and properly URL-encoding query
> strings? (Not to mention other issues like properly validating *all*
> query string input.)
Do the "others"? ;-)

I try hard to convince people to have their pages w3c conform ( - which
normally raises the Frontpage issue :-)

> Maybe perhaps I should be pushing RPG more.
I would be happy if you wouldn't press it down... ;-)

No, you're not doing that. Fact is, that one can produce a rotten web site
with Java, Python and so on and one can create a good site with RPG. The
result should be the same, regardless of the way one chooses - good
applications. These have to be tested and should be w3c conform.

>  But there *are* quantitative and qualitative differences between
> different tools,
> and some tools are clearly better for certain tasks than others.
> Just as there are good reasons for using RPG for certain tasks,
> there are good reasons for using other languages for other tasks.
Absolutely clear; i don't care in which language a quote or escape_html
routine is written - it should have been written a long time before i first
wanted to use it - available and documented in a service program,
preferrably by IBM preferrably in OS/400 integrated.

> One valid reason for using RPG may well be that RPG is the only
> language known by your programming staff!
Yep, agreed, that's not a bad one. (Which doesn't mean that we don't have
to learn. :-)


best regards /  Mit freundlichen Grüssen

Anton Gombkötö
Avenum Technologie GmbH

http://www.avenum.com