An MIS manager for whom I’ve done a good bit of work called me recently with a dilemma. He knew his company had to go GUI. The users demanded it. But he didn’t know how he should implement it. Should he hire some Visual Basic programmers? Or would Visual C++ be better? Or maybe he should use one of the visual RPG products, since his programmers were already proficient in RPG. Then again, maybe a Web-browser interface would be the way to go.

Many developers face a similar dilemma. We know that green-screens will be around for a while, but they’re not going to gain market share. Which skills should we add to our toolkits? Visual Basic? C? Java?

It’s a sort of catch-22 situation, with both employers and developers anchored to the status quo, waiting to see which GUI implementation becomes widely accepted. According to David Slater, IBM’s worldwide market manager for AS/400 application development products, IBM is about to break the impasse.

New Tools

The big news is that IBM is expanding the Application Development Toolset/400 (ADTS) that developers know so well. Developers will still have the utilities they’re used to—PDM, SEU, SDA, RLU, etc.—and will acquire some new ones—VisualAge for RPG, VisualAge for Java for AS/400 (with Enterprise Toolkit for AS/400), CODE/400, WebSphere Studio for AS/400 (with AS/400 Affinity), and the new WebFacing Tool.

This is not a package of junk. This is quality software. You have probably heard of most of it. Let me take you though it.

Although you probably have heard of IBM’s VisualAge for RPG (VARPG) and VisualAge for Java (VAJ), the Enterprise Toolkit for AS/400 (ET/400) may be new to you. It is like the Java Toolbox for the AS/400 (JT400). It includes everything in JT400, plus things such as wizards and source code templates to access AS/400 applications and data.

CODE/400 is the client-side counterpart to SEU. It is an intelligent editor that lets developers move much of the programming effort from the host to a PC.

A Web Interface for Green-screen Applications

It also includes a debugger for e-business applications that may be written in multiple languages and execute across multiple platforms. One of the most exciting new developments is the new WebFacing Tool, which will be great news to many shops that want to keep their legacy applications running in a Web-enabled world. This tool (which I’m going to call WFT even though I have no information that that’s what IBM will call it) intercepts data before it’s integrated into a 5250 data stream and pumps it to JavaServer Pages (JSPs) running in WebSphere Application Server, which in turn sends HTML to a user’s browser. Developers have to do little or no modification of the 5250 application to make this happen. (The largest part of the modification will probably be removing DDS keywords that WFT does not support.) Users will still be able to run the program in green- screen mode. In short, this is a quick and easy way to Web-enable a green-screen application.

IBM defines “quick” as “within a matter of hours.” A brief session with WFT will give you a functional, but vanilla, Web application. If you’re willing to put in a little more time, you can further customize your Web pages with WFT, or you can spruce them up using WebSphere Studio.

There’s one other tiny detail. The operating system support required to run WFT is not yet available. It will be delivered as PTFs to V4R5 of OS/400. IBM will make WFT available to solution providers in the fourth quarter of 2000. This could be considered a beta release, but it’s not, because IBM will give full support to the code. Solution providers will be encouraged to use WFT to develop and ship applications. IBM will continue to enhance the product, with the goal of making it generally available by mid-2001.

Is this a long-term strategy or a short-term workaround? According to Slater, Java is the long-term solution, at least on the client side. Java is still not ready for prime time, at least not in the AS/400 world. Even if Java were mature today, there would still be no easy way to convert tons of RPG-based programs to Java. Using WFT will be an easy, cost- effective way to Web-enable legacy applications without having to rewrite them.

RPG Lives!

Does this mean that RPG is going to be around for a while? Without a doubt. Dave Slater is adamant that it is easier to write business logic in RPG than to write business logic in Java. Slater advises shops to consider the issue of portability. If it is important to be able to run your applications on other servers, by all means use Java to implement your business logic. If portability is not an issue, keep churning out the RPG.

There’s more good news. IBM is going to make this package affordable. By the time this issue of Midrange Computing reaches your hands, VisualAge for RPG and CODE/400 will be available to licensees of ADTS for only $300 per workstation. A few months from now, you’ll be able to add on VAJ and WebSphere Studio at no charge. Eventually, sometime in 2001, IBM will add WFT, and the entire workstation package will be free (with a software subscription, of course). But for only $300 per seat, why wait?