Re: Ruby On Rails on the iSeries -- WEB400

Try renaming something in Ruby and see if it automatically fixes every

reference. 

This is where I was hoping the RadRails.org eclipse plugin could help. I am
with you on the point that there are some second to none features in Eclipse
that make coding Java very enjoyable.  I think refactor and "where used" are
two mouse clicks that I use endlessly throughout the day.  Makes it hard to
go back to RPG where if you name something slightly off you either go
through the pain to changing it or it is just named wrong for the rest of
its life :-)

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com

-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Joe Pluta
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 3:43 PM
To: 'Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries'
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Ruby On Rails on the iSeries

I don't want to really get into a debate here, but I do have to answer a few
of these points.

Take the time to work with Rails and you'll find that it, like many other
frameworks, is simply a fast way to do certain things.  And while some of
the concepts may seem cool at first, I find the conventions to eventually be
too restrictive for enterprise programming.  For example, you need to
remember to name your tables plurally.  A reference to another table is the
SINGULAR of that table name with "_id" concatenated.  You don't HAVE to
follow this convention, but you lose some benefits if you don't.

It has some neat features, and it is more complete than some of the other
frameworks, but the exact same components exist for many other languages,
such as Perl.  The "programming by convention" is perhaps a nicety for
people who don't like to type, but I've never been particularly enamored by
something that magically figures out code based on naming conventions;
inevitably I need to break the naming convention and bad things happen.

Moving on, your bit about EGL being heavy is just silly.  WDSC is certainly
heavy, but that's because it's a full-fledged IDE.  Ruby on Rails, for
example, is a primarily text-based scripting environment.  Try renaming
something in Ruby and see if it automatically fixes every reference.

EGL, on the other hand, is about as light a framework as I've seen.  You
define data elements with as much (or as little) metadata as you want, group
those data elements into records, and then use the records to build your UI
and your database access.  Specify something as a key field in a record and
it is used as a key in database access and is protected in the UI when
updating a record.  It's simple, clean and really fast.

I'd also like to dispel some of your WDSC FUD.  Yes, WDSC updates are large.
As are iSeries cumes.  That's because they're large products, and if a
monthly download of a GB is too much for you, then you ought to find another
platform.  Also, you can download the updates and then apply them later, so
you don't have to "worry about the network going down".  Finally, it's been
a long time since a WDSC update destabilized my workbench... and I do a LOT
of work with WDSC.

When is the last time you saw someone do an update that actually broke their
working environment?

Anyway, enough of this.  There's nothing wrong with Ruby.  Or Tapestry, or
Turbine and Velocity, or Zope, or Laszlo, or any of a number of other
frameworks out there.  Me, I prefer an environment that will allow me to
quickly build a thin framework that will in turn access RPG, and JSP Model
II is the answer for that.

The question is whether EGL provides the productivity for JSP Model II that
Visual Studio provides for .NET, and my initial take on it is that it is
headed in the right direction.

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] 
On Behalf Of Nathan Andelin
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 11:05 AM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Ruby On Rails on the iSeries

Rails offers a lot  of time savers.  Scripts for generating default 
directory structures for  applications.  Scripts for generating basic 
CRUD applications.  Scripts for  generating Model/View/Controller source

files.

Built-in components that  generate HTML, which can be used in addition 
to a WYSIWYG editor, or as an  alternative.  Built-in  components 
which are just extensions of base classes, reducing the programmer  
code to a minimum.  A framework that automatically performs mapping 
between the database and the screen, and visa versa, based on naming 
conventions is  a powerful concept.

 Interpretive  runtime environments are seductively appealing in the 
first place.  There's no  compile, build, or deployment steps.  You 
can immediately see the results of  your work on the screen, or error 
messages generated by the runtime  environment.  It probably can't be 
beat for prototyping and rapid application  development, so long as 
the applications are essentially adaptations  of supported models.

 Tools like WDSC  and EGL are HEAVY, in comparison.  Downloading 
updates to WDSC are an overnight  proposition.  You hope the network 
doesn't go down in the mean time.  The  development and deployment 
environments are so massive that you hope an update  won't destabilize

your machine.


If Rails is simple, and it works, then it's probably destined to 
attract the type of people, and the type of loyalty, that's typical in 
the iSeries community.



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