18.04.2025 at 18:30 myibmi wrote:
And how do you handle the exceptions, e.g. connection loss, unattended closes, bug fixing, debug? I know, for all of them are solutions available, but never as easy like green screen development.
Absolutely - but, you have to rethink the whole application workflow.
Think about it like every screen is handled by two programs - one that only fills the format and WRITEs it to the screen - and another that is READing the screen back.
There is no EXFMT - you have no(!) control over the workflow - your programs have to handle every step as some "atomic" entity. The HTTP(s) protocol is completely stateless - so your application has to handle state internal.
If you think it through, the single programs are much cleaner, smaller and easier to maintain, than one of those 2k LoC dialog monsters with 12 different screens including 3 subfiles and 4 windows.
18.04.2025 at 17:21 Raul Alberto Jager Weiler wrote:
The web design gives you a wide range of options, a black and white web page takes less time than DDS to design and it looks a little better than green screen.
Well - I would dare, that I'm faster, because I only have to modify some existing DDS - and I don't have to think about data-types as the DDS gives me an externally defined record format for free.
And you have to do some config to have the CGI program running in your web server - whereas the 5250 dialog program is only a simple CALL away.
And I have completely left out any form of authentication and authorization, as I assume that you have done that already - but that means, that each and every program has to check it itself - maybe using a JWT or something.
You don't have to do that in 5250 - if you have an session open, it's already authenticated - and authorization is done by the OS.
It can later be made prettier without changing the program.
Also true for DDS - if I only want to have 2 fields on the screen, it's done pretty quick.
As for the speed, writing the CGI in RPG is very fast.
True - but also true for a 5250 dialog. If you don't change type, size or sequence of the fields or add/remove any indicators, you even don't have to recompile your program.
But the "framework" and "routing" is already done for a 5250 program - as long as you have an emulator available.
The web got a reputation of being slow because of screen scrapers, php, java, PC in between, and other options.
Jep - true.
As for data input out of the office, it is much easier to find devices with a browser than with a green screen.
True 100%!
Any celular phone can be used, connected everywhere, it can read bar code, QR, upload sound, pictures, etc.
Well ... not so fast - NO simple web page can read a bar- or QR-code - pictures can be uploaded - but you need to handle that in you application, as the binary upload stream is completely different to handle than a simple POST to a CGI.
If you ask me - I would happily give up all UI programming for simple batch backend processing, as I really hate user interaction. It's simply too tedious to pull their personal preferences and sensitivities out of their noses during requirements engineering ;-)
Just my 2ct
Regards,
Daniel
midrange.com
