RE: An odd thing

[Lynn Folk <lfolk@xxxxxxx>]

I think you should ask them if they have ever heard of the Y2K  problem in this 
country ? And, if he relizes just how scarce COBOL Programmers are these days ? 
Maybe he knows some retiree's ? <gg>


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From:   Chris Rehm[SMTP:Mr.AS400@ibm.net]
Sent:   Tuesday, December 09, 1997 8:20 AM
To:     Midrange List
Subject:        An odd thing

I learned something odd the other day and I thought I'd ask if anyone here
felt different than I do about it.

A company I used to work for has re-evaluated their plans for future
development of the software product they market. They called in a consulting
firm and spent some time reviewing their requirements, future direction, and
existing customer base. 

They decided not to redevelop their package in Java as they expect that a
large part of their customer base will still be on CISC boxes for several
years. This part I disagree with, but I did understand (not that I was
asked). I mean, even if _I_ think RISC boxes are pretty cheap that doesn't
mean everyone will get budget to buy a new one right away.

But they decided to use IBM's Visual Generator to redevelop all their AS/400
based software to a client/server model using COBOL. I was very surprised by
this choice. At first, I thought the guy telling me about it was joking. But
he was serious, and he had called me to see if I knew anything about the
account that might indicate some reason for this direction. 

Now, the customer has no COBOL programmers on site. They do have a couple of
RPG guys. They already have RPG and C both licensed on the AS/400. 

I would think that having opted to not redevelop in Java in order to
accomodate their existing customer base that RPG would have been a natural
choice. ILE RPG, RPG IV, VisualAge RPG. Quite a bit of tools lying around to
make use of RPG skill sets. 

But, maybe this consulting firm (a national one) knows something I don't.
Anybody got some idea what I am missing on this one?


Chris Rehm
Mr.AS400@ibm.net

How often can you afford to be unexpectedly out of business?
Get an AS/400.
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