rpg cannot consume sql procedure result sets.
Is this what you are talking about?
http://www.web400.com/Penton/ex01.rpgle.txt
Concerning your batch comments, I can see where that example could be
beneficial, but there is a lot more done in batch than data IO and green bar
report creation (which I agree could probably be better served on a web
page). One that comes to mind is an application I just wrote for a customer
that is submitted to batch and wakes up every so often to check an IFS
folder for XML files, and then processes them using RPG.
The shops in question have made considerable investment in the System i5.
aka Legacy.
"Legacy" is relative to what can be accomplished to meet a business goal. I
get the feeling you would call anything to do with RPG "legacy" simply
because RPG is involved.
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.
Vendors should be concerned about platform independence because that is a
sale they may not get if they don't support a particular platform. For xyz
company to be concerned about platform indenpendance, you can read right
through that and see they aren't so sure about the platform they are
developing on and want to be ready to jump ship if need be. That's probably
because their history of OSes has been less than satisfactory and they more
than likely have found it acceptable to jump ship every 10 years. Jumping
ship to a new platform (i.e. new OS, new DB possibly) is one of the most
expensive things a homegrown IT department can do. If all you have are
packaged products (i.e. vendor software) then jumping ship is very painless.
The vendor took the time to invest in everything to do with platform
independence in this case - it is a waste of time for a home grown IT dept
to do that IMO.
I don't know if Lukas Beeler frequents this list, but what little I know of
his IT staff, they are doing exactly what I would recommend. Find a way to
stay on a very stable/reliable/expandable platform using a very solid and
mature language. They write nice looking desktop applications that are
driven entirely from RPG.
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Steve Richter
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 5:37 PM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] EGL FUD
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
midrange.com
