Given that, are you still gung-ho about endorsing Mihael Schmidt's apis for
generating and parsing JSON formatted streams?
Just like any open source project, libraries are exchanged for different
ones in the event it makes sense (i.e. additional features, does it
complicate upgrades, etc). Right now Mihael's JSON service program is well
organized, solid and works. I am actively putting together sample code
showing how to use all of the different JSON API's so I can be assured it
meets all the needs of RPGUI (i.e. I had to ask Mihael how to parse a JSON
string with repeating sections as that wasn't immediately apparent to me).
The only thing I haven't tested is performance, which is a concern because
there is a lot of "pointer header traversing" going on in the code that
isn't indexed. So I am sure it will work fine under light/regular loads,
but what if I have A LOT of data in a JSON string (or is a large JSON string
an oxymoron because then we have defined web 2.0 communication conventions
of doing small bits at a time?).
Is open-source still the most important thing to you?
I won't veer from the foundation being open source because that then allows
many other things to come about. For example, I can't write articles about
vendor tools in IBMSystemsMag.com for obvious reasons, but I CAN, and do,
write about open source solutions. Same is true for speaking engagements.
Also, I need a solid framework that I can just give away when involved with
customers that need a few modern looking screens and I don't want to go
through the motions of trying to sell them on a $10k framework.
Sometimes a company will steer clear of open source because it lacks formal
and traditional support - if RPGUI takes off I would imagine some vendor
(maybe even Krengel Tech, the company I work for) would offer
maintenance/support contracts.
I also fully hope/expect vendors to build features on top of RPGUI that are
then sold for a profit - the more exposure the better. For example, one
thing that isn't currently on my high priority list is charts for RPGUI
(i.e. maybe FusionCharts). Somebody could build a tool on top of the free
RPGUI and sell it for a profit (we all need to make money somewhere).
Another thing I have been mulling around in my head is having a "RPGUI Rent
A Coder" division where there would be a "bench" of developers just waiting
to meet your needs as it relates to coding with RPGUI - similar to Apache's
Tapestry Support:
http://tapestrysupport.com. Lot's of ways to make money
on a free and open source framework. It is not good enough anymore to "just
have a framework".
And on a final open source note, quite frankly if it isn't open source then
it will take too long to catch on and subsequently have people leave the
platform before it made it's way to them. Of the existing RPG web
frameworks out there they are most likely in the hundreds of customers -
only helping a small fraction of the existing IBM i install base. I am
wanting this to reach thousands in a couple years.
Will you also pull PowerExt in under RPGUI?
PowerExt has a lot of cool features and it is likely that RPGUI would adopt
some of them (and of coure give due credit/copyright in the doc blocks), but
PowerExt is missing fundementals that RPGUI requires with the biggest being
stateful programming with the data queue layer.
Maybe you could expound on the reasoning behind your questions? :-)
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
http://mowyourlawn.com/blog/
midrange.com
