Re: Has anyone done any processing with OA and WORKSTN device types?

Steven

Not sure if it will add to your investigation, but you might look at the special report I wrote on Open Access - it was in the April 2011 issue of System i News. Admittedly, it was sponsored, but I was given full freedom to be even-handed in my presentation of the 3 main WORKSTN-type handlers vendors. I also present my experience writing a DISK-type handler.

I'm open to any private conversation on this, as well.

HTH
Vern

On 6/26/2011 12:29 AM, Steven Spencer wrote:

Hi Folks,

From April.

Tom
I agree with Mark here - each of the 3 primary vendors working with
WORKSTN files use very different approaches - and I might expect
connections to be a little slow at first, in any case - but the
vendor (I know which one) is the only one that can really help you.
It raises an interesting aspect to Open Access - support and
troubleshooting is going to be rather different, I suspect! It
ain't general-purpose RPG support anymore - it's that plus the one
who wrote the handler.

Steven
And I noticed this. They (the vendors, I have listened to the 3)
like to use the word non-proprietary, without pointing out that the
proprietary nature of the handler drives their system. ASNA seems to
want to off-load everything that is to be added to the PC-side
environment, while Profound is creating enhanced DDS with their
tool. Radically different approaches. (And both do have some major
non-proprietary aspects, to be fair.) I'm not sure how you would
describe the Look Software approach, I will say that their
presentation (that I saw) is very pleasant, with great-looking
examples, but not very techie. Part of it was geared to their users
working with their 5250 data-stream product, to assure them that this
did not bump negatively or differently than that, simply enhances.

At the LI user group at a round-table with an IBM rep there .. the
issue was raised as to why IBM did not do a handler. Basically it
was accepted that they simply did not want to get involved on that level.

And the web search did show one, with some sort of IBM name but I
presume it was experimental or something, it was not linked to a product.

The basic concept, either way, seems very sound .. cut into the
existing flow from the RPG program (the one that has tons of
hand-tailored aspects developed over a decade or two) right away, not
after it has become a 5250 data stream. For a shop that wants to
modernize, that wants nice PC integration available directly to the
end-user with an existing app, who does not want to rewrite (I
considered Magic and WinDev as tools for direct iSeries writing) ..
it certainly seems like these ideas are good.

The shop considering this is has about 20 users, and our software
runs very nicely (we work with Client Access and folks do their PC
work separately, which is one of the reasons for enhancement). I'm
the puter contingent, for the most part.

One reason I liked this idea is .. ta-da.. we have not converted our
software and data files, and I would like to live with OCL and QS36F
a while more, while calling from OCL to CL-->RPG-ILE (DDS) programs
to get the necessary Open Access capability. So far it seems to be
possible, conceptually. (Reason: I really do not want an automated
OCL-->CL conversion, which looks ugly.)

Mark S. Waterbury wrote:

Hi, Tom:> You should be discussing this with the customer

support personnel of the vendor who provides the handler.
Tom Deskevich wrote:

I am doing some testing with a product that uses a ASP.NET

handler and RPG OA . There seems to be a bottle neck once it
attempts to take over the interface via OA. Am experiencing an
average 3 second response time on simple applications. When I look
at the call stack, I can see the program opening the files. But
then I see a 2-3 second extra delay over that. We have a decent server and i.

Any insight would be helpful, thanks.

Steven
And here is one reason I write all this. Do you have a little report
back ? I could write you privately, but I'm sure others would want
to know if you made headway on this, or gave it up, or what.

Yours truly,
Steven Spencer
Queens, NY