RE: unloading SSP machine, Small Bus Edition or XP Pro, Windev -- MIDRANGE-L

Hi Steven,

1) The advanced/36 would have little to no value at this point, so perhaps you need to use it for target practice, or boat anchor... It might make an effective space heater for a small basement.... <g>

2) Your new i5 (hopefully, you got a new i5) can support file serving via the Netserver subsystem (not its BEST talent, but still a viable solution). Windows PCs can see the i5 in their network just like other file servers. I don't quite understand your concerns regarding peer-to-peer vs. client-server.... The choice of XP professional does not really lock you in to one versus the other...... Since you could always use the i5 for file/database serving, you don't seem to be hurting yourself...

3) I have no experience with code generators (besides an stint with Synon/2e in the early 90s, and BCD ProGen in mid 90s). What sort of applications do you intend to write? For basic host based stuff, I was quite satisfied with ProGen, and now that Progen supports web interfaces (CGI, PHP, etc), then it seems a reasonable way to develop and deploy your applications. Browser on the PCs and you're set...

hth,
Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of stevenavery
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 11:23 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: unloading SSP machine, Small Bus Edition or XP Pro, Windev

Hi Folks,

Greetings.

Excellent forum.
Three questions for now.

#1) We recently went to a OS/400 -- from running SSP on the Advanced/36, the 400
model. What do we do with that old machine that does not have OS/400 activated ?
Recycle ? Trade it to China for some toys ? Is there any real usage these days ?

#2) Our 15 PC's (Client Access mainly plus various PC programs) have been running on Windows NT Server 4.0 on an older PC as the "server". The reason we can do this is that we do very little "serving" and even the little that is done is sometimes hosted on one of the user PC's (e.g. Filemaker .. we also have a couple of folks sharing MYOB AP (Mind Your Own Business). However it is time to do some upgrading.

My PC-network guy surprisingly suggested simply getting Windows XP Professional as the base PC ... not Small Business Edition 2003 which would be the expected. (Ok, Linux might be best, but only if we really knew it was doable). This might make the cost more like $1000-1500 instead of $2200 or so for the expected Dell machine .. however it would make the PC network peer-to-peer instead of real client-server. Assuming we were not expanding the PC area significantly in ways that require real file serving, is this a sensible idea ? I will acknowledge that I find it a bit strange but I do not want to fully reject without a solid reason and understanding.

#3) Has anyone worked with or used WinDev -- a program from France that seeks to work on your OS/400 files directly from a Windows development 5GL'ish environment, without the superstructure of the main alternative I know of .. Magic. How is it working ? Are there other players of significance that you know of .. outside of the IBM - Java type of development or a Delphi-type attempt.

ie. a full-blown Window's side environment. The idea --- replacing dual data on Filemaker and enhancing Windows ease-of-use with the OS/400 backend, while maintaining full OS/400 programs and data.

Thanks for your help on any of these somewhat disparate questions :-).

Feel free to call me and chat about any of these, as well as the regular email response.

Shalom,
Steven Spencer
Programmer
Queens, NY
stevenavery@xxxxxxxxxx
347 218-3306