Re: New COMMON Conference -- MIDRANGE-L

Paul,

If your message is to be believed, then we'd be able to look at all of the businesses around and note that everyone is using IBM i for everything, that neither Windows nor mobile has had any sort of traction in the business world, etc.

We all know that's not true.

As for the notion of "a real keyboard interface has to include field exit", I think you're out of your mind. No keyboard has had a real field exit key in 20 years. We typically map something like the "enter" or "control" key to it, and that can be done in any application on any platform. (Well, maybe not touch screen, but... any platform that has an actual keyboard.)

You seem to be implying that a "fancy payroll program" is terrible becuase of the poor keying, but when you write a green screen one, it's more efficient. And you're probably right. But, what if _you_ had written the GUI one, wouldn't it also be efficient?

There's no law requiring you to switch between a mouse and a keyboard (which is what kills the keying speed in a GUI application) for data entry in GUI. Someone like you who knows what's required to make keying work fast could, surely, write one just as efficient for data entry in a GUI environment? I know I could.

But, I think overall, you're missing the point. I've seen this happen thousands of times: It doesn't matter how good your product is, your screens are, etc. Someone important gets the idea that it's legacy crap, and replaces it with a "modern" package, and you're out of a job. I see this all the friggin' time. If you want to stop the bleeding, you need to invest in something that doesn't look archaic. otherwise, some day your users are going to take the same attitude that Jerry's did... that IBM i is legacy cruft, and that Windows is modern. It's complete BS, you can do GUI just as nicely on IBM i. (Better in some cases!) But, as long as the programmers keep giving you legacy cruft, you're going to associate that with this platform.

-SK

On 8/16/2012 5:31 PM, Paul Nelson wrote:

Scott,

Have you successfully enabled the field exit key in a GUI screen format?
Until we have that capability out of the box with no programming, I'll still
espouse the green screen.

In fairness, the only GUI software I've seen that has a "real keyboard" is
from Look Software, but that was a telnet connection under the covers. The
cool part was the ability to toggle between green and GUI.

I don't know if Look Software carried the keyboard mapping over to their web
interface.

Many of my clients are using software from Computer Guidance Corp. in
Phoenix. They had the Look Software product at one time, but for some reason
they were "forced" by IBM to go the web interface route.

The result is software that looks pretty, but if you're sitting in a job
trailer 200 miles from the office, a Client Access telnet session beats the
heck out of a web interface.

I have written a green screen program to enable those users to do higher
speed data entry into the same files as the fancy payroll entry program.

Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 512-392-2577
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx