Re: IBM Rational Developer for System i V7.1

[Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen <thunderaxiom@xxxxxxxxx>]

Joe Pluta skrev  den 29-01-2008 20:06:
> particular issue).  But IBM needs to do this; since we seem not able or 
> willing to make the move ourselves (at least not any more quickly than 
> glaciers), for the platform to move forward, they have to incent people 
> to move with it.
>   
Being a newcomer to this world I have wondered why this is so.

I understand that there is a migration towards ILE, where all languages 
can be linked together in a single program if so desired, but I do not 
understand why this implies that everybody should do so.

If you have something which have run well for literally decades then why 
change it?   And if you have something which have run well for decades 
but you would like to do a small bugfix but cannot do so since the 
compiler is no longer available?

I understand that this is basically what has happened to the Visual Age 
RPG folks.

As you may know I mostly do Java, and one of the most important things 
that happened in that area was when it was made available under the 
GPL.  Why?

Because you are now guaranteed that regardless what happens to the 
parent company (like being bought by Microsoft, after which anything 
with Java is revoked) you still have the platform available that you 
depend upon.

I believe that the advantage of the AS/400 - namely being robust and 
reliable - is also a problem for IBM.  How do you sell new stuff when 
the old stuff works so well?

æ--
 Thorbjørn