System iNetwork

PDM came with the OS and compiler(s), so when will Rational Developer for Series i come with the OS?
How soon will PDM be eliminated?
Is IBM looking to get rid of developers, by making it too costly for companies to provide tools for their staff?
Also, is IBM just that dense that can't see what they are doing; driving everyone to either other systems, read Microsoft or HP, or using third party tools?

I can remember the big deal when all the compilers were bundled into WDS. The more things change, the more they stay the same . . .

The only issue I see is the divisions Rational has chosen. By splitting along ILE and non-ILE lines, they stand to maintain or (most likely) enhance revenue when users supporting "legacy" systems end up buying both the ILE and Heritage compilers. For users, it would be better to split along languages. How many RPG shops do you know of who need a COBOL compiler, and vice versa? BUT . . . how many shops do you know who use both RPG/400 and ILE RPG and will do so for the forseeable future?

Then again, would we have expected much else?

What will ultimately matter is how much IBM charges for these "components". IBM is notorious for saying one thing, but actually doing another, particularly when it comes to the System i.

". . . Has IBM nailed the app dev tools model?" Yes and no. They've got some good points that they should be able to clearly track who's using what. However, there is currently no upgrade path without laying out extra money to get to the new tools. This could be a hard sell in many shops (or at least in some). As a result, they may find that fewer people are willing to use the products because they can't pay for them without management buy-in (pun intended) to approve the extra expense. There are rumors that IBM might allow someone to migrate from ADTS (PDM/SEU/...) to RDi. However, that's all it is at present--a rumor. If they come up with a good migration/entitlement exchange plan, the new packaging might work out okay.

As a related note, I never really did receive a good answer from IBM when they took EGL out of the standard edition of WDSC. I filed a complaint that included the fact they had talked me into starting to learn EGL and then took it away. I did find out later that since I had done some work with EGL, they granted entitlements to the extension (Rational Business Developer Extension or RBDe). I say I found out later because they never said anything about it in the response to my complaint. I found it out somewhere else from an unrelated source. Anyway these entitlements have been a life saver and will continue to be as long as I can swing management to pay the new software maintenance charges these entitlements will require. Again, IBM's model will work if I can prove the value to management.

The challenge with proving value to management is that we're a non-profit organization. Hence, we can license MS development tools pretty darn cheaply--especially compared to the pricing we're getting on RDi and RDi-SOA. The whole thing is adding fuel to the fire that it's cheaper and easier to develop on the MS platform than the System i.

The System i Loses One Big Account and a Mid-Sized One, Too

http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh021108-story03.html

The System i needs IBM vendor developed and supported software, like Web RPG, and vendor supported applications software, like SAP and Oracle, to hope to compete.

Tracking sales of IBM current and anticipated IBM software is meaningless as it does not successfully compete.

Unbundling and rebranding developer tools separately seems like a good move to me.

And pricing tools separately will let IBM know whether individual products are being used or not, and whether the investment was worth it.

RDi SOA seems to offer a competitive alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio and .Net development, which is a good thing too.

So far, the biggest issues I see are breaking out the OPM and ILE compilers. We use both here for RPG (I don't think we have any COBOL stuff anymore). We are current using JDE World so most of our developement is OPM RPG. Depending upon price, this may not be an issue.

The other big issue I see is that to get the wizards to generate web service server stubs for WebSphere (which is currently in WDSC), it appears that we'll have to buy the souped up version of RDi which I'm guessing comes with a souped up price tag.

Actually, if they would deliver that functionality separately as a plug-in to Eclipse (or even just make the command line stuff spit out the same things the Wizard does), I wouldn't even have WDSC installed.

Let's face it ... IBM isn't going to give us WEB RPG that's as easy to use and code as regular RPG.

They're going to ensure that the front end is done by a very few with WEBSPHERE and by the masses with .NET or whatever "MS tool of the month" is out there at the time.

This leaves the majority of iSeries folks stuck writing back end batch processes as we watch the on-line programming slowly migrate away from us.

This said, I cannot comprehend why IBM is trying to force us to a PC based tool kit.

We should be allowed to continue to write our back end, batch processes with RPGIV, RPGLE, and/or any combination of SQLRPG and not have to worry about a tool kit we don't need that runs on a separate platform.

I've watched those GUI programmers spend more time fighting the operating system and/or internet than they do generating business logic and nothing about it seems enticing to me.

Once we have to start learning how to code on-line programs again, most of us will be forced to the MS option and a select few will get to migrate to WEBSPHERE; both of which include a massive learning curve few want to deal with.

Basically, I'm hoping to have my house paid off before I'm forced to learn or provide either.

I think its time IBM came out of the basement and took a reality check. What are the major improvements we are going to be getting from this 'a better RPG'! I dont use it and I have no need for it, yet IBM seems to think that spending all of its development resources on improving it is a good thing? I am paying SWMA as many others do, yet I dont get the benefit of having any enhancements provided for the languages I do use!

PHP is a great language and should give the i5 a new lease on life, but IBM spends nothing on trying to make it effective on the i5! Leave it up to Zend seems to be the order of the day. Requests for changes and improvements to the RSE seem to be ignored and we are left with no alternative but to use alterative tools, those tools don't allow us a single IDE for the i5! Why not give up on trying to bring RPG into the 20th century (yeah that's deliberate) and spend more time developing for the future of the box!

Overall not a great solution for us, but we support the i5 so will continue to use the tools we have.

Chris...

For web front-ends, the IBM solution is to use EGL which they are investing heavily in and making work well with RPG back-ends. No one is being forced to learn J2EE WebSphere skills in order to get to the web.
The enhancements to ILE RPG threading support were huge and should let RPG play well as a web service/business logic back-end.