Re: Ruby On Rails on the iSeries -- WEB400

To help the long-term viability of the i5 and to entice new young talent
trained in modern universal computer languages, if you're going to make
something that does all you say it does and port it to the i5, then have
it generate C code, NOT RPG and REXX or some other universal scripting
language instead of CL. 

Sincerely,

David Odom
Arizona

nandelin@xxxxxxxxx 8/11/2006 15:27:29 >>>

The name "Ruby on  Rails" is quite appropriate, IMO.  Ruby could have
been just another OO language  that faded into oblivion - like
SmallTalk.  But, add a database interface, an  HTTP interface, scripts
for generating shells for basic Web applications,  following a
model/view/controller design pattern, and license everything under  open
source - it's like putting a language on "rails", where it can go
places,  so to speak.
  
 The part that  interests me the most at the moment is the idea of
using scripts and  templates to generate basic Web components.  One of
my colleagues created a utility  for running CL source members
interpretively, as opposed to compiling CL source  members into
programs.  We use it to automate the process of compiling, binding,  and
building ILE applications, which generally consist of a number of
modules  and service programs.
  
 One idea we've  discussed is using CL scripts for generating HTML and
RPG source members,  providing a shell for basic Web applications,
following a model/view/controller  design pattern, given just a few
parameters like the name of the application and  the table or view that
needs to be maintained.
  
 A tool like  Websmart generates HTML and RPG source members for Web
applications, but  requires significant training and understanding of a
proprietary scripting  language, logic constructs, and a Windows based
GUI editor and design tool to be  proficient.
  
 If you already  know RPG, you may not want to learn an additional
higher-level scripting  language, just to generate RPG code.  And you
may not want  to go back to a Windows based tool to maintain the
application, and regenerate  the RPG code.  What if you could just edit
a CL source member, and run a command  to generate HTML and RPG source
members, providing shells for basic Web  applications?
  
 It's just an  idea.  Another approach we've discussed is having a
Wizard, providing step by  step prompts, at the conclusion of which, a
set of HTML and RPG source members  would be generated.  
  
 It looks like Ruby  on Rails takes more of a command line approach,
which is  interesting.
  
 Perhaps PASE and a toolkit  for system interfaces, similar to what
Zend did for PHP, would be the  key to porting Ruby on Rails to the
platform.
  
  
 Nathan M.  Andelin


----- Original Message ----
From: AJ Thomas <ajthomas.iseries@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries <web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 8:46:49 AM
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Ruby On Rails on the iSeries

I have been using RoR at home for experimentation, and love the power
and simplicity. The Ruby language is great, but the Rails framework is
what wins it. If only we had such a thing in RPG. When IBM started
talking about a DB2 interface for Rails I thought iSeries, but alas
no. I assume they have their hands full with PHP at the moment, if I
had the time and some C skills I would port it to the iSeries. If
anyone does manage to get it over, I would be keen to test it.

I guess porting it to PASE would be simpler, but as it is in C does
that mean it could be ported to the standard environment?