RE: Pros and Cons of the various RPG-CGI methodologies

Joe,

>To me, your biggest problem is not which tool to use, but the ability to
>have a development environment.  I went back and read your post, and
>while I agree that developers don't need access to production data,
>there still needs to be a sandbox area for development.

I couldn't agree more.  I've been asking for a real test environment for
months (years, if you count my time here as a consultant).   I've been told
forever that "as soon as we get the new box"...

I was in a meeting last week to discuss the installation with our BP, and
come to find out, the other plans for the box preclude carving out a small
partition for my use.  Talk about being pissed off...

>That way, if you had access to the IFS, you could install Tomcat on your
>own, knock together a quick demo using JSPs, and show management why it
>would be to their advantage to go down that route.

If wishes were horses, all beggars would ride.  If I had my sandbox, I'd
put in another 20-30 hours a week working on this stuff (over and above the
55 I put in now).  I've never been bleeding edge (rarely worked with latest
OS releases, etc) but I've always been ahead of 80% of midrange developers
I know.  I learn best by doing, and now I'm not allowed to do.

>Anyway, if you're stuck with RPG and RPG-CGI, then Colin and I are
>probably the wrong people to ask.  Oh... have you tried Net.data?  It's
>fast and free and people swear by it.

as I said in my original post, i plan to use net.data, but the back end
database isn't in such a shape that I can use it exclusively.