Re: EGL FUD

["Steve Richter" <stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Dec 16, 2007 5:55 PM, Aaron Bartell <albartell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> After doing a little reading on Infocenter about SPL (which I should have
> done first, my apologies) I can see how they could be powerful in
> extending
> the iSeries to other platforms that want to communicate via ODBC/JDBC
> specifically.  How is SPL superior on the batch processing front (from
> your
> original post)?


sql procedure language is tailor made for running sql code. Batch work,
excluding the anachonistic data queue, is database focused. Since your batch
job is effectively reading and writing to the database, that is running sql
stmts, what better way to code it than with sql procedures?  If your
objection is that you cant write the gazillion reports needed in the batch
run with sql procedures, my response is to redo the application so the
reports are on demand and are based on sql procedure result sets. Or use sql
procedures to write the "report" to a flat outfile, then call an rpg program
to print the outfile contents. ( note how RPG is lacking in this use as a
report writer in that, outside of way too complicated sql cli, rpg cannot
consume sql procedure result sets. )

> In answer to your bottom comment.  The reason to stay with RPG can simply
be
> because shops/programmers need to be responsible for pursuing ROI.  The
> shops in question have made considerable investment in the System i5.

aka Legacy.

> Obviously it is also the programmers responsibility to understand what else
> is out there that could be better for their organization regarding new
> software stacks, but I see people jumping ship way too soon after seeing a
> few cool features of a new language/IDE.  This is often done without an
> understanding of what the decision implications will look like in 10 years.
an i5 application written in sql procedure language is probably the most
portable code you can write on the i5. If you are uncertain what the next xx
yrs will bring, you best bet is to write as much of your apps in portable
sql as possible. RPG would be the last language you would want to use.

-Steve