Re: what was the single mgmt decision made in mid-1990s. period

On 17-Feb-09, at 9:29 PM, midrange-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

but it seems to
me that updating RPG and not providing a GUI was putting the cart before the
horse. IBM got that wrong. Of course I am speaking with the benefit of
hindsight.

You bet it's hindsight. RPG IV was introduced what - some 13+ years ago. The development cycle was at least 3 years (I don't recall now). The GUI options at the time would have been an X-term type interface or slaved PCs in client/server mode - neither of which were under serious consideration in Rochester. Things like the browser that we think of today when we say GUI weren't really out there at the time.

The timing of RPG IV was in many ways unfortunate - if we'd started it some three years later it might have been very different.

Jon Paris

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www.SystemiDeveloper.com