Re: Python on iSeries

On Sat, Jan 14, 2017 at 1:49 PM, Vernon Hamberg
<vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Justin - I need to hear more - What is the context of your comment? Do
you mean that in your shop, every report is done with O-specs?

I think that is what he means. I think he would prefer to use PRTFs.

Or are you saying we should not be using PRTFs at all?

No one is saying that.

I will still hold that externalizing display and print to DSPFs and PRTFs
was and continues to be going far past internally-described in O-specs.

Well, there's practically no other way to do 5250 displays than with
DSPFs. Is there such a thing as an "internally described" display? I
know there are the DSM APIs, but few people get trained on those. I
think fewer people even know about those than people who knew about
Python on the i five years ago.

Anyway, I don't think a reasonable argument can be made that the
built-in support for "in-line" screen programming is nearly as strong
as the support for in-line spooled output programming. That was a long
way for me to say that DSPF and PRTF cannot really be argued on the
same terms.

The question of going to other target output is a different one, IMO.

It's a different question, but relevant. In the real world, someone
might be trying to make a decision between O-specs and a PRTF, when it
could be that their situation would actually be better served if they
chose neither.

John Y.