Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: What forum is best for a Tope and Node question?

Hi Aaron,

Node.js v8.x is available. Check out this tweet:
https://twitter.com/litmisteam/status/973624716601843713<https://twitter.com/litmisteam/status/973624716601843713> This is a big
game changer.

Thanks! I did not know that. That actually bumps up the IBM support a notch in my book.

hoping the open source community or vendors provide a friendlier
developer environment.

Kelly, could you expound on this one? By developer environment are you
talking server-side configuration or are you talking about editors like
VSCode? Or both?

A little of both, perhaps more on the server side.

On the IDE side, I personally am fine with VS Code so far. I saw a post where you had it synced with the IFS, and I believe we can use Git in the IFS. That would work for me. But it might be nice to have a single IDE where I can code JS or TypeScript for Node, COBOL and CL business logic, and do whatever else might be needed to create web services for DB2 and COBOL using Node.

On the server side, is Profound Logic’s profound.js module easier to use or more reliable than the itoolkit.js module? I literally don’t know. But having modules that make life increasingly easy for Node developers on the IBM i would be nice. Perhaps even some wizards analogous to Integrated Web Services?

Definitely better documentation in the form of training and tutorials. This probably has a lot to do with my inexperience. But the documentation here seems like a specification or a reference manual rather than a training manual or tutorial:
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/IBM%20i%20Technology%20Updates/page/Toolkit%20for%20i%20APIs?section=Class%20iPgm
Maybe some good books, video tutorials or even some classes on Pluralsight would be helpful. I know vendors are offering training. But that’s not always an easy sell to managers.

I don’t mean to grumble too much. I’m glad we have Node.JS on the IBM i. It’s just really tough for someone who has spent years coding COBOL on the IBM i to pick up Node.JS on the IBM i.

Thanks,

Kelly Cookson
IT Project Leader
Dot Foods, Inc.
217-773-4486 ext. 12676
www.dotfoods.com<http://www.dotfoods.com>

From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Aaron Bartell
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 12:48 PM
To: Web Enabling the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) <web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [WEB400] What forum is best for a Tope and Node question?

Right now, Node seems to me to be "The Emperor's New Clothes"

I'll chime in here because it's important to have a right perspective about
Node.js.

Tony Cairns says it best (paraphrasing): You're seeing how the sausage is
made when you watch open source happen in the open.

The Node.js community grew up with GitHub; everything happens in the open
and that makes some people uncomfortable. Node.js is being used in
production on IBM i. A lot of effort is being put towards taking all the
tooling (i.e. database adapters, itoolkit) to the next level.

And maybe more recent versions of node in PASE.

Node.js v8.x is available. Check out this tweet:
https://twitter.com/litmisteam/status/973624716601843713<https://twitter.com/litmisteam/status/973624716601843713> This is a big
game changer.

hoping the open source community or vendors provide a friendlier

developer environment.

Kelly, could you expound on this one? By developer environment are you
talking server-side configuration or are you talking about editors like
VSCode? Or both?


Concerning client-side development with local connection to remote
database, there's potential with db2sock:
https://bitbucket.org/litmis/db2sock<https://bitbucket.org/litmis/db2sock>. This would allow you use your local
Node.js.

Lots of shops are seeing the writing on the wall with RPG and are moving
away from it(n1) and selecting their next generation language. They could
go with the solid PHP, but then they'd be picking a language that's not on
the rise. They could go with Ruby (not extensively adopted on IBM i,
though very popular everywhere else). They could go with Python (another
solid general purpose language, and seeing more adoption on IBM i than
Ruby). Or they could go with the newer kid on the block that offers
something none of the others can, a single language for client and server.

Everyone should do their own risk assessment. See how others are adopting
by reading some case studies: https://foundation.nodejs.org/resources<https://foundation.nodejs.org/resources>

n1 - Not looking to start a war, just conveying what people are hiring me
to do.

Aaron Bartell
IBM i hosting, starting at $157/month. litmis.com/spaces<http://litmis.com/spaces>


On Fri, Mar 16, 2018 at 12:20 PM, Kelly Cookson <KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>>
wrote:

I wouldn’t go so far as to say node is the emperor’s new clothes. But I do
think IBM could do better by providing the IBM i community with
easier-to-use tools, better modules and better documentation. And maybe
more recent versions of node in PASE.

It seems like IBM is porting node to PASE, offering some basic tools, and
then hoping the open source community or vendors provide a friendlier
developer environment. Maybe not. But that’s the impression I get from my
experiences as a newbie to node.

Thanks,

Kelly Cookson
IT Project Leader
Dot Foods, Inc.
217-773-4486 ext. 12676
www.dotfoods.com<http://www.dotfoods.com><http://www.dotfoods.com<http://www.dotfoods.com>>

From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Justin
Taylor
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 12:10 PM
To: Web Enabling the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) <web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [WEB400] What forum is best for a Tope and Node
question?

Right now, Node seems to me to be "The Emperor's New Clothes", but I'm
watching it because IBM and others are pushing it hard (and that's why I
did a proof-of-concept).



-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Fathers [mailto:X700-IX2J@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 11:46 AM
To: Web Enabling the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) <web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx

<mailto:web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx%0b>> <mailto:web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx>>

Subject: Re: [WEB400] What forum is best for a Tope and Node question?

Oh, I didn't mean to dis node in general at all, I'm a big fan of it 😊
and for developing front end stuff it's great. It's really just the lack of
vendor support for database drivers and the lack of a consistent interface
to them which is frustrating if you come from JavaEE where JDBC drivers are
consistent and well supported, but they've had years to get it right - Node
is still a baby by comparison. As I say, given the chance, I'd migrate my
framework to Node, I much prefer to work in Typescript than Java and I
wouldn't need a Java EE host, but I would be migrating from a very stable
environment with cross platform support and right now I don't feel it's
worth the investment.

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