From: "Haas, Matt
At this point, I don't know why anyone would want to start new
development in Net.Data.
Let me admit that the lack of traction is a valid concern. But that could change quickly if IBM chose to commercialize it, or help establish an open-source community around it. Like any product, it needs someone promoting and supporting it.
If you just consider Net.Data architecture and features, there's a lot going for it. It runs in the native virtual machine and offers an exceptional interface with native language environments. Contrast that with products that offer a migration path off the platform. A good word-smith may characterize them as IBM i modernization tools, but they're actually migration tools - a good way to kill a platform.
I'm impressed that Net.Data doesn't make a "project" out of Web development. Contrast that with tools where the first thing you do is to make a project, and set up about a dozen different directories for your files. Then in order to create a new file within the project the tool offers about 6 dozen wizards for creating it. Since the tool is based on multi-tier architecture, and offers a migration path off the platform, and implements numerous convoluted "standards", and attempts to mitigate between disparate interfaces, you begin to lose site of the desired result, and begin to focus on the mechanics of implementation. When that's your view of Web development, you begin to believe that you need the wizards and code generators, when what you really need are simpler interfaces.
With Net.Data I'm impressed that you don't need to setup an entire development and runtime environment on your PC. You don't need a personal HTTP server, a personal virtual machine, a personal application server, or 12 different editors integrated into 1 IDE. You don't need a wizard to deploy your application to a server. You don't need to make a "project" out of setting up or upgrading your development environment. You don't need a beefy workstation. You can make incremental changes to macros and immediately see the results. You don't need to redeploy your entire project.
I like the fact that with Net.Data you're dealing directly with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript rather than working with various tag languages that generate server and client-side components that generate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but do little to improve the user interface. Instead, they lock you into less flexible interfaces.
Net.Data performance surprised me. In my last message I provided a link to an inquiry screen which I implemented in both Net.Data and RPG, and where client response times were essentially identical for both versions.
Nathan.
midrange.com
