Re: Unix

[thomas@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Steven:

On Thu, 06 December 2001, steven.donnellan@simonjersey.com wrote:

> I think we're winning because they are spotting the strengths of the
> AS/400 for the business in question.  I have also given my friend a few
> pointers  on how he might consider sharing data between the systems using
> something like access (I know, I know...) as a go between.

Sharing data might be easy depending on what Unix it is and what's installed. 
Keep in mind that the AS/400 supports NFS and that even DRDA is possible (if 
the Unix side has the necessary components.)

An iSeries at V4R5 has multiple Unix-related options. QShell is a Unix-style 
shell for running scripts and utilities. Hundreds of Unix APIs are native, 
available even to RPG. Linux can run in a LPAR (I know -- already 
disqualified.) And PASE provides a binary-compatibility with AIX. There are 
some Unixes that don't provide as much.

PASE is an intriguing possibility. It's essentially nothing more than some 
run-time libraries (costing maybe $100 for V4R5?) that provides an ABI for AIX 
executables. I've compiled a C program on AIX, FTP'd it to the IFS and run the 
program with no problem. (Of course, I also tested modifying the resulting 
streamfile object with EDTF to see what would happen and it ran just as well. 
That was one difference between those and native *PGM objects that made me 
nervous.) I'd expected somebody else to mention PASE by now, but QShell and 
Linux were all that showed up.

Tom Liotta

--
Tom Liotta
The PowerTech Group, Inc.
19426 68th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Phone  253-872-7788
Fax  253-872-7904
http://www.400Security.com


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