Re: Integrated Web Services server

[Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Scott Klement wrote:
> The notion of making a 5250 program into a web service
> is something I'm not familiar with, and definitely sounds
> like a treacherous slope!

A treacherous slope?  How about quicksand? May look solid at a cursory 
glance.  Before you know it, you're up to your neck in goo.

5250 and Web-service sound like contradictory terms when used in the 
same sentence.  One designed to respond to discrete requests such as 
converting degrees centigrade to fahrenheit; the other for controlling 
complex workflows.

5250 display files traditionally contain 4 - 400 record formats and one 
5250 program may call other 5250 programs in a chain of programs that 
open their own dislay files.

5250 and Web services?  We're talking about different paradigms.  Unless 
of course, one considers HATS and Webfaced applications as "web 
services".

Suppose we take a product like Zend 5250 bridge.  After a connection is 
established, 5250 screens are exposed as arrays of fields [including row 
& column numbers, data types, display attributes, and conditioning 
indicators].  How is that data useful except to emulate 5250 screens 
with a lot of extra overhead?

Nathan.