Re: EGL and other things -- WEB400

From: Aaron Bartell

I just can't see how one could think that what EGL has is better than what
RPG has with DDS (concerning hidden architecture). The difference in
simplicity between what's required to build a screen in RPG/DDS vs.
EGL/HTML/CSS/Javascript is quite different IMO.

This is opinion, so I'm not going to say you're wrong. But seriously,
Aaron, once you get EGL up and running, you'll see how easy it is to paint a
screen with an EGL record. The HTML/CSS/JavaScript side is harder because
it's harder (than DDS). But doing all that yourself is equivalent to using
the DSM Dynamic Screen APIs for 5250, which I promise you'd find a lot more
difficult than DDS.

EGL does most of the HTML, CSS and JavaScript work for you. Here's a point,
though. Would you agree that web UI is more complicated than 5250 screen
design? If so, then if EGL can let you put together a good looking web
screen as easily as SDA lets you put together a green screen, wouldn't by
definition EGL be more productive than DDS? I'm just saying...

The correct architecture (which as far as I know we've all agreed on for

some 15 or 20 years now) is to use RPG to build your business logic and
then attach it to your UI using some sort of SOA attachment.

What? You padding those years a little? Hasn't one of RPG's strength's
been creating UI's that are fast to use and only in the past few years
(let's say 6 to 8) it has gotten a lot of scrutiny because of it's archaic
look?

Uh, no. Some of us have been creating n-tier business applications using
the IBM midrange since back in the day when it was a System/38. We've had
thick client applications as long as there have been PCs, and of course that
required an n-tier design that supported both green screen and GUI. We were
doing that at SSA back in the late 80s and early 90s.

Not telling you anything new here, but separating UI from BL has really
been
very accessible since the introduction of RPGILE, and that was V3R2 right?
It has simply been "unknowing RPG programmers" that develop with
everything
(i.e. UI/controller/BL/DAO) built into a single mainline program.

Yeah, this is in line with what I just said: you should be programming you
business logic without ANY user interface code. So to me, an EXUI
instruction is pretty useless, since I consider Java to be better suited for
graphical UI. Personally, I think generating HTML in RPG is just plain
goofy, but that's just me.

Multithreading, for one.

As I understand it from my in-person conversation with Barbarra Morris,
this is simply making RPG thread safe more than anything. So in my mind
this isn't really a feature to write home about.

If you've been talking to Barbara, then you know more about the compiler
than I do! Why ask me when you have the source?

Joe