Extending RPG (was RE: [WEB400] Re: Re: XML, RPG, Web Services, Joe = Holy War was -> RE: Re: Modify the IE Browser)

[MEovino@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Joe said:

> RPG is not designed to convert a JPEG to a TIFF.

and he said:

> In it, IBM has given us the ILE environment where we use
> the best tool for the job, and Java interoperability above and beyond
> any other platform.  So for this particular business problem, you have
> AT LEAST three different alternatives on an iSeries

I didn't mean that we should extend RPG only by *writing* in RPG.  Taking a
C program that does image conversion and stuffing it in a service program
so it's easily *called* from RPG or taking a Java program that does the
same thing and creating wrappers so that it's easily *called* from RPG
(kinda like what I attempted and Aaron succeeded at with JavaMail) would be
a great open-source project.


Mike E.


                                                                                
                                                  
                      "Joe Pluta"                                               
                                                  
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> From: Hans
>
> Hmmm, TIFF to JPEG conversion? Oh, about 3 lines of code in a language
> like Python, using the Python Imaging Library.
> (Import the PIL, open TIFF file,
> write in JPEG format.) TIFF to PDF? A couple of lines of code in
Python
> using ReportLab functions. (I assume Perl and Java have comparable
ease of
> programming for these tasks.)

As much as I love to watch Hans wax poetic about his beloved pet Python,
let's understand something here.  RPG is not designed to convert a JPEG
to a TIFF.  It is used to create business applications, the kind of
stuff that none of the hobby languages can do, because they don't have
the application-level horsepower of good old RPG.  RPG isn't designed
for bit twiddling.

The reason Python has all those libraries is because Python NEEDS all
those libraries.  That's because Python doesn't play well with others.
Python doesn't easily call Java, for example.  You can't even call C
without some serious help.  You can afford this in a hobby language,
because you don't really use it for anything except maybe converting
JPEGs to TIFFs.

OS/400, however, is built for industrial strength application
development.  In it, IBM has given us the ILE environment where we use
the best tool for the job, and Java interoperability above and beyond
any other platform.  So for this particular business problem, you have
AT LEAST three different alternatives on an iSeries:

1. Port a C routine.  Takes a little work, but this is probably the best
performer.  Compile to ILE, stuff it in a service program, and it's
available to any program that needs it.

2. Call a Java routine.  iSeries Java support is perfect for just this
sort of thing.  No need to play with Perk or Python; use a real,
industrial strength, fully supported language.  And if you have problems
with JVM startup, run it as a server and send it a request.  The other
thing OS/400 excels at is inter-process communication.

3. Fire up a Linux partition and do all your dirty work there.

These are just off the top of my head.  The reason we don't have a whole
bunch of RPG libraries is that we don't NEED a whole bunch of RPG
libraries.  Why reinvent the wheel?

Joe

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