Welcome to iApplication Designer

[Guest.Visitor]

Congratulations. This should like a great place for new ideas. Please try to publish articles that describe new ideas and follow where the successful part of the mainstream is heading. Please avoid the JAVA, CGI, RPG dialect discussions that are so pervasive here and so pointless. I want to know where people are going and what they are doing now. I don't want to hear coder laments about my way is better than your way and you're stupid if you disagree. In fact, I don't want to read about coders at all, unless it is a small part of a larger application, such as how to tie the backend ERP system into an RFID front end. In my former life I was an application developer who also coded. I was a lonely soul because there seemed to be so many narrow focused coders of limited range and so many analysts who ran into another room whenever actual keyboard work was a possiblilty. Neither group was very good at putting together a picture from the parts. The thing they seemed best at was protecting the status quo. These types are one reason why Bangalore is flourishing. A place where applicationa are described and discussed is welcome. Please work at the big picture level whenever possible. If I read an article that glows about the merits of Java Server Pages and considers them an end as opposed to a small part of the means, I will be significantly disappointed.

[Guest]

Welcome to iApplication Designer

I'm beginning to understand that the iSeries-AS/400 isn't just for RPG any more. I love RPG and how the language has grown. But I also want to learn how the use this machine for all that it will do. I want to learn it all! Now, if I only had the time...

[J.Pluta]

Welcome to iApplication Designer

Back in a previous life I worked for a very successful software developer. We had two departments: Technology and Product Management. The two departments vied constantly, as they were meant to do: Product Management sought to add every feature to the product line that the customer might want, while Technology tended to things like standards and delivering the code on time with quality. Interestingly, the person most sought after was not necessarily a star at either position, but one who could bridge the gap between the two worlds. You sound like one of those people, except that (and maybe this is just me) you seem to denigrate programmers. You consistenly use the word "coders" which, in case you didn't know, is a faintly derogatory term. Like "scifi" or "hacker" it is typically used by people who aren't in the business. When used by those in the business it is generally used to describe things that are sort of second class. The guy we all admired was a guy by the name of Doug who basically had no programming skills but he had a real vision; he realized that in order for him to be successful, both sides of the development world had to exist. And so he took it upon himself to learn what programmers do day in and day out, and he came to respect their work. When he defined a requirement, he had tuaght himself enough about the database to be able to point the programmers in the right direction to get the right information. Why did he go to this length? Well, I think it's because he realized that without programmers, system integrators would have nothing to integrate. There is only so far you can go with an Excel spreadsheet; eventually you need professional programmers to do the job. And this is the publication for those people. So yes, among the many things we'll be discussing is metrics that compare performance between various solutions. We'll be discussing how easy it is to maintain and debug script languages as opposed to compiled languages. We'll be sharing programming techniques, and they'll primarily be of interest to programmers. We'll address the pros and cons of CGI and JSP. Now, if you don't want to read about technically oriented subjects, then I suggest you focus your attention on the iTechnology Manager publication. Part of the reason MC reconfigured their publications was so that people with could devote their resources to one place and not waste their time on things that aren't appropriate. iTechnology Manager will be focused more on the business aspects of IT decisions; for example, my first Weaving WebSphere column in iTechnology Manager will be focused on the Notes/Domino platform. On the other hand, if you continue to read iApplication Designer with the expectation that there will be nothing in it for programmers, then I fear you may be significantly disappointed. On a last point: the comment about India was really distasteful, not to mention pretty inaccurate. iSeries growth quarter over quarter was pretty much double that of the major Indian consulting firms. Joe P.S. Due to a glitch in the software, if you're the first poster on an article, your post comes up anonymously. Unless you're actually trying to distance yourself from what you wrote, you might want to sign your name on such posts.

[J.Pluta]

Welcome to iApplication Designer

That's the spirit! That's why I bought an xSeries box and have Domino loaded on it as I write this. That's why I'm trying to learn a little Python here and a little VB.NET there. I've got Microsoft Visual Studio and WDSC loaded side by side so I can compare them. No longer can your business application be tucked into a midrange and stuffed into a closet (which it often literally was in the old days). You have to integrate with otehr solutions, and more importantly, you have to know enough so that YOU can select the right solution to integrate with! These days, if IT doesn't set a direction for the users, the users will set a direction for IT. And very often that direction will NOT be the one you wanted to go! For example, would you rather have your data on a single iSeries server, or on dozen of Microsoft Access databases strewn about the corporation? That's a no-brainer, but if your end users have tied themselves into their personal Access databases, they'll be reluctant to move off of them, and they'll have a point! Unless you can provide them with the same functionality, they're fine with what they have (maintenance, DR, and corporate standards be damned). So I'm hoping to spend my time in this publication comparing and contrasting not only iSeries technologies, but also those technologies that interact with the iSeries. Domino is a perfect example: it runs both on and off the iSeries, and it interconnects with a wide variety of other products and protocols, making it an excellent way to extend the enterprise (and incidentally, one that does not require Microsoft). So jump in with both feet. The good news is that the water isn't too deep right here (although you should beware of the undertow; these technologies can suck you in, trust me ). Joe

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[Guest.Visitor]

Welcome to iApplication Designer

I guess I should preface my comments that I'm not an RPG developer, but I do develop on the iSeries. If you guessed Web Developer, you guessed wrong, COBOL (If you RPG'ers think you are a dying breed, image being me!! LOL) We all complain about IBM not doing enough for us, but what have we done for our favorite development platform lately? To give you a feel of what frustrates me, I had to lobby our upper management to install WDSc on all developers PC's. They wanted to just give them the classic tools (Code and VRPG in a COBOL shop). The rational they used was they don't need it to get there jobs done. Myself and 2 other developers got it because we do develop in Java. That was the perception of WDSC. My perception is obviously much different. Developers need to see what has happened to their AS/400. Users see what other people have, and you can bet they want it. If we don't change our thinking about development and what we can or cannot do on our beloved iSeries, it doesn't really matter what IBM does! I totally agree with what Joe had to say "If IT doesn't set a direction for the users, the users will set a direction for IT. And very often that direction will NOT be the one you wanted to go!" We need to educate ourselves AGAIN!! Forums such as this will help in that education and I need all of it that I can get!!