System iNetwork

December 10, 2006

Database Modernization

On a post to this blog the question was raised: "It appears that any modernization effort needs to start with a fully normalized database. Is this correct?" Another person noted that some shops have experienced substantial performance improvements by switching from native IO to SQL, and yet another comment pointed out that many system i shops have very unnormalized databases. So I pose these questions: How important is database modernization to application modernization, must it be a first step, and what role should normalization play in modernization?

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Posted by on December 10, 2006 at 8:13 PM | Comments (23)

October 18, 2006

The Form of the Function

Highly modular applications will contain, among other things, collections of small focused functions which take in a set of parameters and return a value. These functions might take the form of service program procedures or SQL functions. Because there may be a variety of execution settings for calling the function, sometimes the service program procedure form is preferred and sometimes the SQL function form is preferred. But if we are interested in having only one unit of code for each function, it is useful to know that either form can be wrapped in the other.

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Posted by on October 18, 2006 at 8:50 PM | Comments (12)

September 26, 2006

Dimensions of Modularity

Whether we are developing new applications or modernizing older applications written in the "structured monolith" style of former times, the virtue of modularization is widely acknowledged as contributing to applications which are swiftly comprehended, flexible, easy to maintain, and give a high degree of reusability. Modularity is a fundamental premise of modern application development.

But modularity can come in many shapes and sizes and be mapped out according to a variety of architectural strategies. Different applications may be modularized differently to accomplish different objectives, and modularization practices may reflect distinctive corporate traditions and customs. It may be worthwhile to give some reflection to the dimensions which give shape to the characteristic of application modularity.

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Posted by on September 26, 2006 at 5:24 AM | Comments (1)

August 16, 2006

Triumph of the Browser?

It has been suggested that it might be premature to proclaim the triumph of the browser, as I did in the preceding thread. It was pointed out that Flash and other forms of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) may take precedence over the browser.

I agree that RIA's like Flash are likely to gain momentum, but they are so interwoven with the browser that I have a hard time agreeing that they negate the triumph of the browser. Rather they augment it and further it.

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Posted by on August 16, 2006 at 10:05 PM | Comments (30)

July 6, 2006

Traversing a Paradigm Shift

It recently occurred to me that Thomas Kuhn's theory of intellectual history, where long periods of paradigm consistency are punctuated by shorter periods of 'paradigm shift', can be applied to the history of business computing. When I look at my own IT community -- the tradition of IBM computers progressing from the 360/20 and the Sys/3 to the iSeries and the system i -- I feel that we are still in the midst of traversing a paradigm shift, and the new period of stability has not yet settled firmly into place.

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Posted by on July 6, 2006 at 10:14 PM | Comments (10)

May 29, 2006

Back to the Future

Whether modernizing preexisting applications or developing new applications in a more modern way, there is a set of ideas about code structure and modularization strategies that have gained popularity in the RPG community since the release of RPG IV. Many of these ideas are also widely accepted in objected-oriented languages. In fact, these ideas which seem so "modern" are older than is often recognized. Let's go back in time to see in an article of the past some of the ideas shaping the future of RPG application design today.

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Posted by on May 29, 2006 at 5:55 PM | Comments (26)

April 23, 2006

Varieties of IO Strategies

For many, the idea of modernization includes at least two things: 1) moving from green screen to GUI, and 2) developing a layered application architecture where business logic is separated from user interface logic, on the one hand, and IO access logic on the other. A post at the end of the prior thread of this blog asked about four different IO strategies which were under consideration,

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Posted by on April 23, 2006 at 5:19 PM | Comments (109)

April 12, 2006

What Does Modernization Mean to You?

Words can mean different things to different people, and the phrase "application modernization" is no exception. To some the phrase may elicit positive connotations, whereas to others it may be a source of irritation. For some it may convey responsible management of software assets, where others might hear in the words a veiled criticism of mature applications simply because they are not young and new. What does modernization mean to you?

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Posted by on April 12, 2006 at 9:59 PM | Comments (49)

April 10, 2006

The Challege of Modernization

Many RPG applications in the iSeries world were initially designed and written in the 1980s or 1990s and then carried forward to the present day. They may have been originally developed on the System/34 or System/36, in RPG II or RPG III, and then gradually and continuously modified as they evolved from their initial environment through the System/38 and/or AS/400 to the iSeries (soon to be System i) and RPG IV. Most of these heavily-modified systems still retain their original architecture and green screen user interface, and are comprised of programs which still reflect older programming practices. There is a growing sense among managers of iSeries IT departments and RPG developers that for these applications to have a sustainable and useful future, they must be modernized. Failure to modernize may hasten their obsolescence and replacement.

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Posted by on April 10, 2006 at 7:41 AM | Comments (9)

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