I agree with you on reversing the trend, but I don't think you will see that happen. The horse is out of the barn :-)
Once a company goes with Java, PHP, etc... RPG is really no longer needed and neither is OS/400 because the aforementioned run anywhere including a Powersystem with AIX or Linux.
Can't say I like it, but that's reality.
Recently I asked the IBM folks if they could get ASP.Net to run natively on the iSeries and they said, thanks for the input we'll think on that. No response in 5+ months.
They actually had an IBMer port ASP.Net Mono to run on iSeries under PASE a few years back, but they shelved the project and the guy who did the work won't give it up for fear of being legaled into submission. I asked :-)
If ASP.Net ran on the iSeries, many MS-centric programmers could program directly for the i. Wouldn't that be interesting and a compelling reason to keep the i in spite of Microsoft.
Regards,
Richard Schoen
RJS Software Systems Inc.
Where Information Meets Innovation
Document Management, Workflow, Report Delivery, Forms and Business Intelligence
Email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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message: 5
date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 10:20:43 -0700 (PDT)
from: Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: [WEB400] Microsoft .NET frontending IBM i
I view MS.Net as a very palpable threat to IBM i. It began as folks started looking for modernization tools, then evolved as Microsoft gathered migration consultants and vendors under their Midrange Alliance Program, then further strengthened partnerships under a new organization called Enterprise Platform Modernization. They're organized and equipped, they're on the war path, they're taking ground.
http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh092710-story02.html
I'd like to see that trend reversed. From an architecture perspective, refer back to my analogy of the restaurant serving customers from a soda fountain, then later inserting what amounts to little more than a staging area in between customer tables and the soda fountain, which causes a bottleneck, adds latency, wastes resources, costs more, destabilizes the operation, and negatively impacts customer service.
http://archive.midrange.com/web400/201010/msg00033.html
But it doesn't do any good to complain about the problem. We need to be able to offer a solution. We're doing our part by developing and offering new products for schools, which are entirely IBM i based. I think there's real opportunity to retake lost ground by offering better applications, and ones that not only perform core functions, but ones that also bring back auxiliary functions like document management, approval & routing, data warehousing, business intelligence, dashboards, web portals, electronic data exchange, GUI reporting, etc. under IBM i. We're either building now, or planning on building that type of functionality into core applications. I think there is good opportunity to simplify and streamline operations, and offer better customer service.
-Nathan
midrange.com
