While this is true if you're a software vendor, it might not be true if you're a service provider. It might be argued that the days of ISVs are numbered anyway as people move towards cloud computing and software as a service. This is where I think there could an opportunity for smart software vendors, who have perfectly serviceable software that no-one will buy because it's green screen and runs on a "legacy" platform. If they could re-architect their software as a web application and market it as a managed, cloud-based solution, for which they charge a fee per seat or whatever then who cares what the back-end technology is? Does anybody really care what platform Saleforce runs on? Who knows, given the economies of scale and the IBM i's famous reliability and low cost of ownership, it might represent a viable model.
In some respects we've had for years the ability to do "mainstream" development on the IBM i using Java, but relatively few people do and I don't see Node changing that. I'd go so far as to say that doing "mainstream" development on IBM i is pretty pointless anyway, as is using it as a simple DB2 server, as neither to me leverage some of the key strengths of the platform. While RPG might be considered old fashioned it's proven an extremely stable environment to create robust business applications and there's a lot to be said for software that just works, and keeps on working. Anyone that's worked with Javascript will tell you it can be an absolute nightmare, apart from the fact Javascript itself it a poor language in which to write business logic, the entire ecosystem around is considerably less stable than anything we have been used to in the past. Any project you write will inevitably depend on other libraries, which often take a cavalier approach to backwards compatibility and you can end up in dependency hell. For the front-end this is manageable and the benefits clearly outweigh the drawbacks, I'm not at all convinced the same can be said of redeveloping the back-end in Javascript or even Typescript.
________________________________
From: WEB400 <web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Henrik Rützou <hr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 17 March 2018 00:41
To: Web Enabling the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Rise of Node
Guy's
Any software house knows that developing new software for "IBM i only" is
worse than starting a hairdresser's salon for red-haired people only - just
look at the size of the community and the number on the financial bottom
line for most proprietary IBM i ISV's and the consolidation of many BP's.
IBM has provided a gateway to mainstream development on IBM I – you have to
adopt and invest in it, otherwise the platform will eventual die – that is
the inevitable truth.
On Fri, Mar 16, 2018 at 11:03 PM, Bradley Stone <bvstone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Fri, Mar 16, 2018 at 4:45 PM, Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I wonder the reason for the assertion that shops are "moving away" from
ILE
languages, rather than integrating with ILE languages on IBM i? Sure,
some
shops may be using scripting languages to generate formatted responses
to
requests from browsers and web-service clients, but still integrating
with
IBM i stored procedures, triggers, and user defined functions? And using
ILE languages for batch and background processes? A separation of
responsibilities? A shift in application architecture that includes both?
Is there really a case to be made for Node doing it all?
If there were, there wouldn't be so many things in the toolkit that let you
interact with data areas, queues, etc. And you could run it on any
platform you wanted and simply migrate off the IBM i. Maybe that's the end
goal? Who knows. But I wouldn't want to see a node application that does
AR, Inventory, etc... You'd go blind.
It has its uses, but while we RPGers are told "you use RPG as a hammer, and
see everything as a nail" I see the similaries on the other side of things.
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Regards,
Henrik Rützou
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